Finally hit the woods again to chase turkeys. Been busy catching a lot of stripers.
This morning was a short hunt, but a lot of fun. Had 15 birds fly down in the field in front of me. Not close as I inadvertently setup too close. There were 4 hens, 10 jakes, and 1 longbeard. He was leading them around like the king of the field. The paid no attention to my lonely hen decoy. They started to move away and I started a hen fight. I hit my box call while simulataneously agressively yelping on the diaphragm mouth call. The longbeard poked his head up and looked in my direction and then led the whole group into the trees. I knew he was going to circle around and come in from the woods. As soon as the last bird got out of site I stood up and got behind a big oak. Sure enough here comes the longbeard. I don't know where the rest of the clan went, but I was happy they didn't follow. Anyway, he hung up at 12 yards and strutted away. Finally, after a minute or so he turned away in full strut and I gave him the Frank Zappa! Very fun morning.
Not the giant I was hoping for (I didn't get to him), but a nice bird. 9 5/8" beard. I didn't measure the spurs, but they look to be about 7/8". I'd say a solid 2 year old bird.