# Goofy Elk's beardless turkeys...sad



## BPturkeys (Sep 13, 2007)

A couple of months ago Goofy Elk was talking about "beardless Tom turkeys" and I think this is a possible explanation. This turkey was harvested down on the La Sal's this week and for all intent purposes looked beardless. He has suffered extreme winter frost bite to his feet, his beard has clearly been frozen and broken off flush with his breast feathers. His legs have been frozen up to his knees and the shin was white and obviously dead. The horny outer layer of his spurs has fallen off exposing the underlying bone leaving the spurs pure white. My guess is he was a two, maybe three year old bird, but since the sheath of the spur is missing it is hard to determine his age correctly. Although he was getting around ok and seemed healthy and had a craw full of pine nuts, I am sure his badly infected feet would sooner or later do him in. Even though we know life can be harsh for our feathered friends, it is still hard to see the suffering first hand.


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## luv2fsh&hnt (Sep 22, 2007)

From the looks of the first picture he went and killed himself a three legged gobbler.Congrats on a successful hunt. Mother nature can be cruel.


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## TEX-O-BOB (Sep 12, 2007)

I've seen turkeys in Montana after a bad winter in this same shape. Some are even footless hopping around on stubs. A tougher bird I'm not aware of.


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## proutdoors (Sep 24, 2007)

I was able to get video footage of a hen with a 5-6 inch beard this morning. The more I learn about turkeys in the wild the higher on my list of favorite animals to hunt/observe they go.


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## cfarnwide (Sep 10, 2007)

proutdoors said:


> I was able to get video footage of a hen with a 5-6 inch beard this morning. The more I learn about turkeys in the wild the higher on my list of favorite animals to hunt/observe they go.


Almost like elk hunting. If turkeys could smell, we'd all be screwed.


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## proutdoors (Sep 24, 2007)

cfarnwide said:


> proutdoors said:
> 
> 
> > I was able to get video footage of a hen with a 5-6 inch beard this morning. The more I learn about turkeys in the wild the higher on my list of favorite animals to hunt/observe they go.
> ...


+1


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## Bergy (Apr 3, 2008)

+2 Turkeys are one of the funnest hunts IMO you can go on.


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## cfarnwide (Sep 10, 2007)

fatbass said:


> cfarnwide said:
> 
> 
> > ...If turkeys could smell, we'd all be screwed.
> ...


I dont shave... :lol:


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## goofy elk (Dec 16, 2007)

There are two or three members of this forum that had Nebo tags and personally
saw those "beardless toms".

may-be if they see this post they might chime in,,,,,,,,,Might help my character. :wink:


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## Packout (Nov 20, 2007)

Well, Goofy, I don't think anything out there can help your character.... BUT I saw a beardless Nebo tom just this morning while trying to get my 70 something year old father a shot just a few miles South of your preserve. He was much larger bodied than the jake with him and strutted with a full plume. Unfortunately my calling skills and the 6 hens with him did not make a receipe for a photo of proof.

And I was going to stop in and to shoot one of Goofy's roosting birds, but the No Tresspassing signs fended me off from even pulling in the driveway. See Goofy, the signs do work on some people.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

I saw several beardless toms on the west side of the mnt.


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## GRIFF (Sep 22, 2007)

When I first got the outdoor channel I watched way too many turkey hunting shows. I remember on one of them some guys called in 2 toms that had little stubby beards. They shot one of them and then made the point that they didn't shoot a jake because it's tail feathers were all about the same length and it had giant spurs. They went on to explain that the reason the beards were so small was because they had some sort of bacterial infection that caused the beards to become brittle and break off. Maybe that is the cause of beardless toms on the Nebo unit.

Later,
Griff


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## mr.seven (Sep 18, 2007)

correct me if i am wrong but isn,t that a illeagle bird in utah. i believe the proc states must be a bearded turkey


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