8-Bearded Gobbler Number 5 Georgia Turkey of All Time
Georgia hunter Joey Wildes might have bagged the No. 5 Georgia bird of all time after all National Wild Turkey Federation requirements are met, according to Georgia Outdoor News.
Wildes went to his hunting club for an afternoon hunt after being quarantined for 10 days with Covid symptoms.
“Honestly, I didn’t have a clue of what to expect in the area I was headed to hunt, but after being stuck in the house for over a week, it was nice to get out in the woods,” he told the news outlet.
Arriving at the club, a fellow member recommended an area that was unfamiliar to Wildes.
“I got set up about 150 yards from where a food plot intersected the road, and I called off and on for the next 30 minutes. Then a work call came in, and I had to take it,” he said.
Most people would have given up after several minutes on a work phone call in the woods, but Wildes decided to keep going. He walked another 100 yards and decided to call again. Right away, he got a response from a gobbler. He quickly tried to close the distance on the turkey. He settled in a shorter distance out and began calling once more. He did this for about 45 minutes, but the bird would only come within 100 yards, then retreat.
“I decided to run away from him and play hard to get,” Wildes said. “I went 100 yards back down the road from him and called. When he responded, I hurried back to my stuff and belly crawled off the road and into the bottom.”
He realized a nearby flooded area was keeping the bird at bay, so he crawled along the edge of the water till he had a decent shooting position across the water.
“As soon as I called to the bird, he thundered back, and I knew this time he was coming right to me,” he said.
Once he was settled in, two gobblers came quickly into the call.
“When their heads lined up 16 inches apart, I felt confident I could knock both birds down, and that’s when I squeezed the trigger and let the pellets fly,” he said.
Both birds hit the ground, twitching. Wildes took off his shirt and boots and swam across the flooded area to the birds.
“I didn’t care how deep it was; I was getting to those turkeys. I lost a good tom last year that flopped around and then took off on me; there was no way I wanted to do that again,” he said.
Wildes added: “I called some friends as I made the long, wet walk back to the truck and described the bigger gobbler to them on the phone. They instantly became super excited and told me I had killed what sounded like a record-caliber tom. I couldn’t believe it! I had heard of birds with two or three beards but nothing more than that.”
The record-breaking turkey had eight beards that measured 10 2/8, 7 6/8, 6 4/8, 7 4/8, 4 6/8, 7 3/8, 6, and 5 2/8 inches. The 20-pound, 12.6-ounce bird had spurs measuring 1 1/2 and 1 3/8 inches.
These measurements give the tom a score of 160.25, making it the No. 5 Georgia gobbler of all time after all NWTF requirements are met.
