Hunted hard for most of the season.   Missed opportunities on 2 other gobblers.  Took this one on the last day at 9:45 am.  5" beard with 3/4' spurs weighing 13 1/2 lbs.  Not the biggest bird in the woods but I took him after putting up with the heat, heavy foliage, mosquitoes, and 3 ticks embedded in me.
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Good job. You have to go every day because you never know when they are ready to come in. I had a real slammer show up in my backyard a week ago but had already filled both my tags and was hoping it would make it through. I heard him Fri evening but not since and the hen he was with has been in my  yard five times since by herself. Someone apparently got himself one for the wall on the last day. Yours must have wore himself out breeding judging by the weight.

He must have really been chasing the hens.  There isn't many gobblers in the area I hunt, so he didn't have much competition.  My buddy said it is a jake.  But I don't think so.  Would a jake have a 5" beard?  It had a pretty big head and the beard looks wore off.  I would say at least a 2 year old. 

Nice Panfisher......  Glad to see ya could post your pictures, enjoyed seeing them... Congratulations.  

Saturday evening my better half wants to know if I saw the big gobbler in the corn field on the other side of the road?
 
Seems she was returning home around 6:00 pm and saw the bird out in the field: "big bird with a white head and the beard was just swinging back and forth as he walked across the field toward the trees"; she said.
 
Past two weeks I've been seeing bicycles or scooters laying in the weeds along the edge of that field so, I never even gave it a thought about hunting that section of woods or field.  Anybody having Amish neighbors knows bicycles or scooters means the Amish beat ya to the spot.
 
Well guess who ASSUMED those bikes and scooters would be there Saturday afternoon sooooooo..... he didn't hunt that area?
 
Oh well........ there's always this fall! 
 
Congratulations to those that 'bagged their bird(s)'.

It's not uncommon for a Jake in the spring to have a 5"beard but I've never seen one with 3/4" spurs. The photo shows a full fan and jakes do not have that. The center tail feathers are several inches longer on a fanned out Jake. You got a 2yo. I once called in a 4 or 5 yo for a friend that had 1-5/16" spurs that was less than 15#.

Nice bird for sure. He must have worked hard this spring and lost some weight. Congrats!

Thanks guys.  He felt heavier carrying him out of the woods.  Or maybe I'm just getting too old.   lol
 
Thanks S10  I did not know that about the jakes tail feathers.