Jake or beard rot?

I've had a group of long beards hanging around this area through deer season, but they've moved in the last week or two to their traditional spring areas. This bird has shown up now and is hanging with this group of hens. I haven't seen a pic of him yet that led me to believe he was a Jake. Other than his beard. What say you?

It'd be nice to get a pic of him blowed up to tell. You will get that pic soon it looks like

I don't think that be a jake

I say beard rot

His head doesn't look like a gobbler's

Why do you say that? His head is part of what makes me think he is a gobbler

I'm gonna say jake

To me the colors aren't bright enough and the shape/size is in between a hen and gobbler.

Gobbler

My vote as well.

Dr. B

Jake

Beard rot...

Thick beard for a Jake.

I think beard rot.

Beard rot

I say Jake from the picture.

One way to find out for sure!...

I say a Jake.

If he gobbles like the man, ground check him.

Jake

Beard rot

Aggressive Jake or AJ^

You can get a closer look after you shoot him.

Jake. Look at the upper covert feathers of his wing. Gobblers are twice that long. Looks like he will have a rope next year.

I second dixiep SHOOTEM and get agood look.

I say a super jake. Adult gobblers breast would protrude out more than that

Full fan. Shoot him

Someone's always got to be bringing facts into our conversations.

Sorry, it is the biologist in me lol. You can tell yearling hens from older hens the same way.

Beard rot. Please let us know. I thought his head was right on for a gobbler. It was the first thing I looked at after the beard.

Thanks for the info coonhunter. That's what I was looking for

Well damn I was late lol didn't even see his post

This was my thoughts too

His waddles hasnt dropped yet.

Can't tell from the pic but my experience with beard rot (and of course you know this) is the tip is brown/rust in color. If you could enlarge the pic maybe you could tell. I think it' a jake. I'm looking close at a jake on one of my cams and he's an identical twin of the one you posted.

Dr. B

I say gobbler. Head and body are too large and his beard seems too thick to be jake.

it's a jake

I got confirmation on a pic this morning. It's a jake.

I think you can trust AU Coonhunter on stuff like this. I have a hard time being sure by looking at feathers, but I think he's got it down.

I joined a club in GA about 10 yrs ago without even seeing it. Finally went over there last week in April and heard one turkey gobble, and he flew down across the property line. I spent the rest of the day looking around and that was literally the only turkey on the place.

I went back into the area he roosted in mid afternoon and started calling, and the gobbler came up and made a wide circle around me, staying about 50 yards out. He looked exactly like the turkey in your pic, with a short, thick beard that looked like beard rot, but his color was just like a longbeard. I kept telling him to stop and give me a good look at him, or I was gonna ground check him. He never did and was moving away from me, so I let the tss check him for me - Jake. Oh well. He was a $400 turkey.

nice nubs!

Dr. B