beard rot

[purple heart]

I'm going to try turkey hunting again. I tried to get into it about 10 years ago but
between the goofy regs. and the turkeys not cooperating I just figured it wasn't worth it.

I've got a place to hunt with plenty of turkeys and a young gun that's going to try and
teach this old dog something.
A couple of weeks ago while coyote hunting the area we saw some turkeys and the kid,
after looking them over said " It looks like there maybe some BEARD ROT in there.
When I asked him what he meant by beard rot he said it might have something to do with
the beard getting frozen in the winter and breaking off. It's supposediy possible to get a mature
bird with a real short beard because of beard rot.

Anyone else ever heard of this?

[Sidekick]

I'm not going to say it's impossible but it's probably more likely that it it is just a younger bird. I killed an 18 lb. jake one year. Nice big jake, just had a 4" beard.

[venado]

Freezing the beard off of a turkey where I hunt would be quite a trick (south TX), but down here the spur length seems to be the better predictor of age, not beard length. LATH can speak to this with authority which I certainly can not do.

[purple heart]

Hey venado,
You South Texas guys are always causing me problems whenever I mention a northern problem
you guys are always the first to reply with "not down here". Just Teasing. LOL
I was in Texas, just south of Austin, this past Jan. visiting my son. I saw a couple of deer but no hogs.
The pictures you post of those awesome deer you have are great. They end up with drool marks on them.lol
Maybe some day I can make it back and hunt those awesome deer.

[venado]

South of Austin, where, maybe San Marcos? I live only an hour from Austin myself, let me know when you visit your son and we can grab a cup of coffee together.

Pigs we have more than plenty of... I hear many guys that hunt where there are no hogs and they wish they had them. I recommend thinking really hard about that. Hogs are remarkably capable in reproduction. We have been under drought conditions for some time where I hunt and our hog numbers have dropped substantially year after year lately but this year the rains came and with them came the hogs. We saw over 60 shoats along with some sows and boars in a recent weekend and all of the famales will be a reproduction age by this Fall. You can bet that we will have a bunch the rest of this year and next even if the drought returns. Those big bucks are high dollar items but killing hogs can be relatively inexpensive in Texas and loads of fun.

[purple heart]

Hey Venado,
Actually my son lives in Kyle. I got to go to the Cabelas while I was there. That might actually be in Buda
I don't remember.
I don't think I could afford a B&C buck. I've heard they can go for 10,ooo and up. I personally don't think
any deer is worth that but maybe if I had more money than I knew what to do with I would try it.
However that's not the case.
It would be interesting to meet some of you guys.

[venado]

purple heart, Kyle is about half way between San Marcos and Austin and I'm a half hour from San Marcos. Next trip down let me know and we'll see if we can get together in San Marcos for a burger or something.