Rare birds spin off

BGD post got me to thinking. What are some of the cool things you guys have killed in turkeys and pics if you got them. Probably the neatest character I have ever killed in a turkey is one with a Mohawk. It was a buddy of mine and myself first double and the only one I have been a part of since. It was 8 years ago and I didn't have the money to mount it and wish I would have. Here is a pic from back then its the one on the left

I've killed three smoky grey gobblers, one with no beard, one with no spursa full grown gobbler that weighed 12 1/2 pounds with a 10" beard and 1" spurs. NOT skinny, just shaw sized

3 smoky Grey's??? I've never heard of anyone else killing more than 1. Only sg gobbler I've ever seen was dead; guy in GA killed him and had been hunting him hard all season. Congrats on some rare birds.

One of the best gobblers I ever killed weighed just 14; 12.5 is really small.

87dixieboy, that's wild bro -- BTW, I know it's not a mount, but I got a close-up game cam pic of your Mohawk bird; here's the GlamourShot

PCP, I killed a 14 pounder near Pineapple early 70s ,10 inch beard. I never saw a bird off that place over 16 pounds in several years.

Haha man that's what he looked like. I kick myself now for not sticking him in the freezer.

Here is my buddies state record double spur bird...each had a 1" spur and a 1 1/8" spur....broke a 25 year old nontypical spur record and then was broken the next year...

That's amazing! Awesome bird.

I've killed several 14# or so gobblers in Monroe county hills that had good spurs 1" or better. Small frames are fairly common in those areas so not really rare for our area. I killed a jake with a 7" beard one time. One with a missing spur on one side. That's about it, not that any of those are rare, haha.

Man, awesome pic!! I bet that joker HURT when he spurred those other birds!!!

I don't know if it's rare, but I've killed a limit for a couple years of all double bearded turkeys. I've only killed one double spurred turkey.

I killed one with 6 long beards. The main beard was 11 1/4" and the shortest one was 8". I shot the top beard about half off and only one strand remains on the next to the top beard. The bottom 4 weren't touched by any shot. I have it mounted in my man cave.

Back in the 80s I saw a large wild white hen. I have hunted the same area since and have not seen another white hen since.

I seized a nice double spurred turkey killed illegally in Mo and brought back to Al. Secondary spurs were 3/4" I think, it is mounted in the USFWS office in Montgomery last I heard.

I killed this long toe nailed one a few years ago, every thing seemed normal about him except his legs, Spurs and toe nails

We saw a Jake the other day that's chest was green like a peacock

Almost looked oscillated

I've got one mounted with bleach blond wings

High Fence

Nope gmo crops. Mainly RR corn

I'd say that's pretty rare

I've been turkey hunting a long time, killed first at 14-15 in early 80s, and only seen one with multiple beards. Dad took a triple beard in the late 80s.

I would say that what you have done is not only rare but amazing.

I'm not saying that there is no such thing as a piebald turkey but I looked up "Smokey gray" since I was curious what y'all were talking about and pulled up a bunch of pictures of people with what appears to be a Narragansett.

I use to have one of those when I was a kid. Dumb as shait.

I seen one guy with a Bourbon Red and another with a Bronze too. Every city slicker on the turkey board talking about what a cool bird they kilt... LOL!

I killed a 4 bearded bird back a few years ago. I've killed 5 multiple beard turkey which is rare to me simply because my dad, who has been killing turkey since the 70s, has never killed a multi-bearded turkey.

37 years of turkey hunting, two five beards, one with 37" total, the other had a 10" plus four 1" beads. Two triple beards and about a dozen double beards.

My first gobbler 9 years ago was a double beard. Since then I have killed a 4 bearded, triple bearded and 3 double bearded.

smokey greys aren't a tame bird variety, they are a naturally occuring wild color phase. Been around for hundreds of years.

Yea, without DNA evidence I don't think I believe that. You ever seen someone in the country with a bunch of turkeys running around the yard. Any of them chained down? Not as common today but use to be. I don't care who said it or if it was written in the newspaper or 100,000 people on a turkey board said it was so. Someone at a Deer show calls one a "smokey gray" and someone posts it on the internet while several people chime in on a bulletin board about how they kilt one like that in 1962 with their Grandpa and the legend of the "smokey gray" is born. That's how stuff like that gets started.

What I'm saying is that there could be a piebald turkey or albino or whatever have you. Let's rule that out. Outside of that I'd say one with some different color especially a slate, bronze or white variation of any kind more than likely has some yard bird in him.

I can be convinced otherwise, I'm not dense and readily willing to admit there is such a thing as a "smokey grey". I don't think I know everything. I learned long ago I don't. Most of us are pretty clueless really. But I'm going to need real evidence in the form of a DNA test to be convinced. Not an opinion. These Hippie types that want to live off the land are all into Heritage birds right now and they roam and breed free then try and get $7 a pound for them to some yuppie foodie cook in a fancy restaurant.

Didn't look like this did it? About nearly all the "smokey gray" I see pictures on Turkey boards sure do.





Also known on the Turkey boards as:

Goatkiller, you can search for color phases of the wild turkey and read articles like this one all day:

http://www.turkeyandturkeyhunting.com/tu...omestic-hybrids

But with your requirement for DNA proof it may be impossible to convince you that there are different color phases in the wild turkey. That the smoky grey is a natural phase seems to be accepted by every turkey bilogist alive, but they could all be wrong.

We had a smoky grey hen in our winter flock, but I haven't seen her this spring.

That doesn't convince me. Brian Lovett with a blog or the Minneapolis Star Tribune who don't know shait from shoe polish probably.

Not even the DCNR. Michigan is real convinced they got some from Iowa or something. Remember all the DCNR types have told you that wasn't true?

I'm telling you these Hippies are into this right now. They aren't in pens and they can fight good as a wild one. They get loose. I lay this at both of your feet. Study up on heritage birds. You can see all the color phases here:

Heritage Bird Breeder Mash Here

Go back to you're turkey hunting boards with new found knowledge in hand.

Thanks,



These ole boys right here done kilt a Bourbon Red. Ear to ear I tell ya!

[img]https://onyourownadventures.com/hunttalk...mp;d=1396560634[/img]

This right here is from Michigan Sportsman. They are appently really convinced. Go forth and save the yard birds guys.




It's like when you went back later in life to something you learned in school. Maybe read a different point of view or just got older and wiser, read a different account of history.... well you figured out maybe what you've been told all yer life... maybe that wasn't entirely true or the whole story.

I always thought Lovett Williams knew what he was taking about when he wrote of the wild turkey. He spent his life studying them, and I don't remember any of his stuff I've read that I thought was wrong. I don't have a link, but he wrote about the smoky grey phase in many of his books.

I don't always just take the word of the eggheads on subjects like this, but they do have a whole lot of evidence to support their view on this one. The phase is found throughout the range of the Eastern subspecies and about 90% of them are female. This sure seems to support the belief that it is caused by a recessive gene. That so many turkeys in so many areas display the same color phase makes it seem very unlikely to me that they are all caused by barnyard turkeys.

Goatkiller, you oughta take the evidence you have that proves that the smoky grey is not a true wild turkey and write a paper on it. You will get rich and famous as you prove so many authorities to be wrong.

I don't care if it has yard bird blood from way back or not. If I were to ever call one of those up, in the wild, and it acts like a wild one ima shoot it and have it mounted anyway. And you know what id be tickled to death with it as well.

goatkiller knows everything, don't argue with him. Fkn dumbass.

I'm with goatkiller on this most of different colorphases come from interbreeding with domestic heritage breeds. Alot of the heritage breeds were derived from cross breeding wild strains with domestic stock to increase their immunity to disease. Take the royalpalm they crossed them with Osceolas a long long time ago to come up with that breed.

IF I left this ole boy out unattended we'd have alot of smoke phased turkeys to hunt he'll hump anything from your leg to a chicken he don't care

Some won't believe you. They'll wait for the all knowing State to tell them. Lol

No BhamFred I think it is well document via your posts on here that you are the one that is the know-it-all.

And you apparently take it personal as shown by the use of that real smart mouth you got on ya.

Mr Cliff - figure you'd have had one or two if you agree. The Narragansett I had when I was about 10 named "Tom" of course...

We use to have so many Turkeys on the farm when we'd feed the cows and you'd drive the tractor down to feed they wouldn't get outa the way... they'd part like Noah at the sea as you drove through. That Narragansett was a big fella. He'd get down there amongst them. He'd have humped the bird dogs if they'd have held still long enough. Pretty sure there is a smokey grey somewhere in middle TN with his name on it.

X2! I'd mount it in a heartbeat. I could kill a double spur, 10 bearded regular color turkey and I'll take pics, cut his legs, breast, fan, and beards off, and not think twice. But a different color phase, he's gonna have a spot in the living room!

I'm eat up with turkeys I raise them for fun, very few days out of the year I don't spend interacting with turkeys. It's taught me alot more than hunting them or reading books. The past and present local biologists know me well enough to respect my opinions when it comes to turkeys. I'm sure these birds are "wild" but would be hard to convince me they don't have some heritage breed in them somewhere down the line. And like others stated I'd diffidently mount if I harvested one.

I raised a batch of Smokey grey birds off of this tom a couple years ago. They do exist in the wild, miles and miles away from. Any domesticated bird. Could it be from a hundred years ago? Sure but it's still a wild turkey none the less. And for what it's worth, heritage breeds started out as wild birds that were selectively bred, which tells me there had to be some true wild strain color birds somewhere in the gene pool.

Here's an odd one I caught in camera a few weeks back.