gobbler with no beard

[pullit]

+1  on the beard rot

+2

[tomstopper]

He is one of the smart ones and shave before the season.

[honker22]

Killed this big boy. Like Reloader's he is my heaviest La bird to date. 21.5 lbs, spurs over an inch. Watched him strut for 20 mins with binos. Saw he had a full fan and full gobble. Finally when he committed to me, the sun hit his beard just right and I saw a few long strands and I slowly put the binos down and got my gun ready. He had 5 strands that measured 8".

[Rio Fan]

The biggest bodied turkey I've ever seen didn't have a beard.  He was with two longbeards and he was noticeably much larger than they were.

[mudhen]

Nope, never seen a tom with no beard at all.

If I did here in Cali, I'd be looking around for Mr. Greenjeans....

mudhen

[BBD]

I killed one a few years back with 7/8 spurs around 19-20 lbs that didn't have any beard at all.  He came strutting in and I shot him around 20 yards. I never even looked for a beard since I knew he had a full fan and good gobble. There was no sign of a beard. I have killed a couple with beard rot that looked just like the ones above. I just hope it wasn't genetic

[RutnNStrutn]

I have shot full fans with 2 or 3 in beards. Iv'e also shot a full fan with 10 in bead and no spurs.

A couple of seasons ago I shot a limbhanger Osceola that only had a thick 5" beard that had rot. He came in thru chest high grass, so I saw a nice beard. Just didn't know it had rotted off just below the level of the grass. I'm still glad I shot him.