Have you ever seen this?

[dejake]

Shot a mature bird today. Spurs were 1.5 inches, obviously an old bird.  Here's the kicker; Bird should have had two beards. One node, or base, had nothing. The other node had three feathers, about an inch long.  The bases were small, apparently this beard never grew a beard.  Anybody ever encounter this?

[Dr Juice]

Pls share a pic with us. I suspect that the bird had the beards but they broke off possibly due to rot and breeding.

[dejake]

No, you could tell by the small size if the base that nothing had been there.

[DADOGG14]

Killed one last year with 1" 1/4 Spurs that never had a beard. Not even a node or base for a beard. I took it to the state biologists and he said he had never seen another one like it.

[Hookinembig]

Have not seen this and pretty interesting.

[Sixes]

I killed this one a few years back that strutted a couple hundred yards across a brood field. I never noticed he was beardless until after I shot him.  Full fan, 1+" on the spurs. No sign that he had ever grown any type of beard, only solid feathers down his chest.

[wvmntnhick]

We couldn't even shoot one like that in the good state of WV. It must have a beard to be legal in the spring. Guess someone could shoot it in the fall

[Dr Juice]

Freaks. I'm sure they still taste good. Congrats.

[Marc]

I had a tom come in with a hole where his beard should be.  He came within a few feet of me (never saw his fan) and had decent spurs for a California bird...

Had another tom last year, and just could not see the beard...  He was strutting and had a full fan.  I was set to shoot, and he came in from the side, and I only saw a profile, but he was plenty close to see a beard if there was one...  No beard, nor sign of any remnants of a beard...

I'd have no problem shooting a mature bird without a beard (especially last season), as I'd rather see them out of the gene pool where I am hunting anyways...  A spring bird must have a beard in California though.

[turkeyfeathers]

We couldn't even shoot one like that in the good state of WV. It must have a beard to be legal in the spring. Guess someone could shoot it in the fall

same in NY

[Greg Massey]

In the old days of stocking turkeys in our area our game officers cut the beards off the gobblers. The reason they said for doing this was hoping to keep the gobblers longer in the groups..