i'd love to place some pics of it up. any idea how to transfer a pic from 35mm film onto a computer. we (my family) were still living in the dark ages of technology when it happened! i don't have a scanner, so that idea is shot.

Harvested my best bird this year in Kansas with 11 1/4 paintbrush beard and 1.25 inch spurs weighed in at 23lbs 5 ounces. That tagged me out as I had harvested a 10.5 inch bird with 7/8 inch spurs at 24lbs the day before. Joined my buddy in the woods the next day and called in a monster tom after a rain storm, had him next to my popup blind at 25yds struttin his stuff. I sent a text to my buddy across the field and told him to crank up his hen calling and get that brute away from my blind, I had my shotgun on hand for a coyote but this big guy was tempting me with no tags left.
He harvested that bird about 45 minutes later and it had 4 beards with the longest being 10.75 inches but he was an old guy and had worn or broken his spurs off.
Great hunt in Kansas looking forward to next year.

I have not measured but I would say about 8' at the most I must be hunting in the wrong area,I use a .410 maybe a bigger gun will get me a bigger bird..lol

I don't think I've ever killed one with a beard over 11".

I never care how long the beard is. I'm in it for the rush that only turkey hunting gives me -- not in it for a trophy.

One on the left is 12.75" long. The one on the right has an 11.5, a 10" and a 1.5". Both turkeys were harvested within seconds of each other. There was even a better bird with these, but walked around a tree just as a hen got nervous and had to take these two birds.

11 3/4 Rocksprings,Texas good ole days..............

13 3/4 san hanjello

Haven't been on the Turkey forum in a while but was bored at lunch so checked out this thread again. Gamblinman....those are some kick arse beards there my friend!

Lots of good ones on here. Here's how your beards compare to the NWTF record for Rio Grande beards:



Longest Beards - Rio Grande Wild Turkey
Rank Hunter Score Date Harvest
State Hometown
1 Joe Mullican 15.3750 04/07/01 OK Elk City, OK
2 Charles Salter 15.0000 04/13/85 TX Comanche, TX
3 Alvin Tisserand 14.8750 04/01/85 CA Anderson, CA
4 Bryan Hartsell 14.5625 04/16/99 TX Fulton, KY
5 Forrest Mazey 14.5000 04/29/96 OK Sawyer, OK
6 Ralph Anderson 13.7500 05/03/96 CA Tuscon, AZ
7 Eric Fields 13.6875 03/29/90 CA Redding, CA
8 W. S. Price, Jr. 13.2500 04/03/88 TX Plano, TX
9 John Rix 13.0000 04/18/92 TX Dallas, TX
10 Jerrod Pearce 12.6250 04/05/97 TX Newton, KS

My longest was this past spring. 3 bearded. 11 3/4" , 11" , 8 5/8"

Shot him with my bow. I was the biggest rush that I have ever had.

wcromer, when was the "good ol days" 80s? 70s?