Posted a story and pic of the bird I killed this morning that looked like he had been worked over pretty good. Got me to wondering about other birds that guys killed that had been beat up or had interesting injuries. First bird I ever killed had just recieved a butt whoopin and had a nice puncture wound in his breast. Any stories?
Shot a gobbler one year that had copper plated 4's in the breast... Act like nothing was wrong
I shot a gobbler about 4 or 5 years ago that had a deformed leg. I saw him coming from about 300 yds away and could tell he was walking funny.
When I shot him and looked at the leg it was about 3 inches shorter then the other leg.
Also shot one with the fan shot away
(http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc202/mnturkey/PICT0004.jpg) (http://s218.photobucket.com/user/mnturkey/media/PICT0004.jpg.html)
You can see the tail feathers on this one are missing
Killed a lot that had been shot before. Also seen a lot of fighting injuries.
I killed this one last year in Kentucky, I have no idea what caused his injury but it was pretty brutal.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v395/olesixbeards/P5020147.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/olesixbeards/media/P5020147.jpg.html)
Killed this one two or three years ago who had been shot in the wing. It had healed over and still has a shot in the wing bone. It's beside the uninjured bone for comparison.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v395/olesixbeards/P5170194.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/olesixbeards/media/P5170194.jpg.html)
Just shows how tough they can be.
Called one in for my BIL that had lead shot in his butt and copper plates in the right wing.I shot one a few years ago that was underweight with most of his breast feathers torn out from fighting. He had a 10.5 in. beard but no spurs to fight with.
I shot a 2 year old a few years ago that had 3 deep, parallel scratches all across his breast. My guess was that he had narrowly escaped an attack from a bobcat.
FC
Killed one in Missouri a few years back that had like a mangled foot with something like a big wart on it. killed a few that was caring shot that wasn't mine.
Killed this bird a few years back. had no idea there was anything wrong with him until I reached down and grabbed a hold of his legs. Didn't seem to hinder him too much. Fishing line through and a stick through the leg and still chasing hens!
(http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee128/cbhorns/101_2533_zps0e33b165.jpg) (http://s234.photobucket.com/user/cbhorns/media/101_2533_zps0e33b165.jpg.html)
That's amazing. I believe hens would have been the last thing on my mind. Truth be known a hen was probably some how responsible for his predicament to start with.
Very true.
Quote from: guesswho on April 11, 2013, 06:15:47 PM
That's amazing. I believe hens would have been the last thing on my mind. Truth be known a hen was probably some how responsible for his predicament to start with.
Ain't they always?
They are definitely the toughest birds ever IMO.
I killed one a few years back on the ground in the dark. I didn't even know if it was a gobbler or not. Just knew it was injured. We had bad tornadoes the night before and it had got blown out of the tree and broken both legs at the hips. It turned out to be a gobbler
I've killed several that had been gouged up pretty good. Last year I killed one that had been shot that same day. The bird was just under a hill and poked his little head up and that's all I could see and BAM. When I got up to him I noticed a skinned up place on his wing and top of his leg. He has about 10 pellets in that area. I know he had to have been shot that day cuz that was the first day of season. I killed another one last year that had a HUGE swelled up middle toe. It was as big around as my thumb and full of infection. I don't know if he had been bit by a snake or what.
Killed this one a couple years ago. Came in with two other gobblers. Didn't even realize anything was wrong with him till I went to clean him. Reckon one of his buddies spurred him in the chest. After I found it then I noticed the smell, pretty nasty infected. You can see where I cut the beard off, it was just under it on the breast.
(http://i1223.photobucket.com/albums/dd519/darn2ten/2011-04-20_18-02-28_873.jpg) (http://s1223.photobucket.com/user/darn2ten/media/2011-04-20_18-02-28_873.jpg.html)
Killed one a few years ago that had about a 4 inch stick stuck in his breast. Must have been there for awhile because it was pretty healed over.
Killed a Rio one time in Texas that I can't believe could even fly up to roost. His wings were down to bare bone with barely any meat left on them. He still came in strutting and showing off, but couldn't gobble. He'd stretch out like he was trying, but no sound. Only sound he made was spitting and drumming.
Didn't find out until after that my buddy had hit a bird 2 weeks earlier within 50 yards of where I killed this one. Same no-gobble, and he thought it was turning to leave. Just as he shot the bird dropped into strut and he hit him in the back of the wings/back. Had to be the same bird. Wings and back were green with infection, but he was still chasing hens.
My best spurred gobbler only had 3 tail feathers...all in the center. You could see the rest starting to grow back. Not sure what caused it. My guess was a coyote snuck up behind him while strutting and was not too successful.
Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk 2
I killed a gobbler in 2001 that had been shot apparently very early in the season. His right wing bone (the large one)was shattered by several #4 lead pellets. No way he could fly up to roost and the injury was beyond mending. He must have just hopped up on a low limb to roost. I killed him the third week of the season. He came in like nothing was wrong and I took him at about 35 yards with a 2 1/4 oz. load of copperplated #6's out of my BPS 10 ga. The broken wing was on the offside and the pellets were plain lead #4's, that's how I know he was shot earlier by another hunter. I was glad I killed him as the varmints would have gotten him soon anyway.
Killed a gobbler many years ago in WV that had a stick through his chest just like Boomer had done. The stick was about 2 feet long and maybe as big as quarter (.$25) and healed around very hard like callous. He didn't seem to care.
Jim
Killed this gobbler last year, he was with two other gobblers, nothing struck me as odd with him before the shot as I watched all 3 work towards me for around 100 yards. Killed him at around 40yards and when I walked up to him and picked him up noticed he was as light as a hen ?? started looking him over and noticed his beak was deformed almost crossed so I figured he was probably on the down side of life. After cleaning him noticed he seemed to not be having much difficulty eating as this what was inside.he weighed 14lbs 3oz had a 11" beard and 1" spurs.
Killed one last year that had a air gun pellet in his breast, one like stated before with busted healed over wing with shot healec in the bone and the first one I ever shot smelled rank when cleanec. He was full of worms and some brown goop in his cavity. It was NASTY
Its amazing how tough these birds are.
The boy killed this one Saturday morning. We were all set for turkey fajitas for dinner until we went to work with the filet knife. It had a sisck on the sternum and this was all around the area. I'm sure the yotes ate good.
amazing