Carolina hunter bags 5-bearded gobbler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqiOKUyS8D8

Big bird weighed 21 pounds

Jake Flowers has been bitten by the turkey hunting bug, and who can blame him?

He killed his first one on Saturday morning in Duplin County. The bird weighed 21 pounds, carried spurs measuring 1 5/8 inches, and had five beards totaling 43 inches. The longest beard measured 11 1/2 inches.

Flowers, a 21-year-old junior at N.C. State University from Goldsboro, N.C. majoring in agriculture business, took the bird after it flew off the roost and into a field that his 2019 N.C. State roommate, Pelmon Hudson, took him to target. He’d seen the bird there the past two days.

“He sent me a video of that bird on Friday night, out in a field. And he said that was the last time anybody would see him alive,” Flowers said. “He had seen him two days in a row. He figured he was a 2-year-old bird that had been kicked out by more-dominant birds.”

Ah, no.

Duplin County gobbler
Pelmon Hudson (left) called in this five-bearded gobbler for Jake Flowers on April 11 in Duplin County.

When Flowers, Hudson and Kolby Jessup, a teenager who was video’ing the hunt, blinded in on one side of the field, with decoys out, it didn’t take long. The tom gobbled once on the roost, then flew down into the field. Then the bird spent nine minutes working its way across the field. It never dropped out of a full strut.

Gobbler came in silent once on the ground

“A little after 6:30, he popped up on the other side of the field. He started to us, strutting the whole way,” Flowers said. “He came in, taking his time. And he didn’t gobble once he was on the ground. It took nine minutes for him to get across the field.

“He was a little bit outside of the decoys — I think they were 30 or 35 yards — and they wanted him to break his strut. So Pelmon cutt with all he had, and he broke stride. He took my first shot like nothing and took off. I shot him a second time and got him.

Duplin County gobbler
The 21-pound gobbler sported five beards totaling 43 inches in length.

“We didn’t know he was special until we got up close and looked at him, then Pelmon said, ‘He’s got three beards. He’s got four beards. Then he looked at one of the other beards and found out it was split at the base. So he really had five beards.”

Flowers gave Pelmon all the credit. His former roommate took him turkey hunting for the first time in 2019. In three trips, they worked four gobblers. All of those hung up out of range.

“He was set in his mind to put me on a bird this year,” Flowers said. “He’d been riding around during the week, scouting, while he was farming.

“Pelmon did all the work. Now, I want to kill one all by myself.”

About Dan Kibler 887 Articles
Dan Kibler is the former managing editor of Carolina Sportsman Magazine. If every fish were a redfish and every big-game animal a wild turkey, he wouldn’t ever complain. His writing and photography skills have earned him numerous awards throughout his career.

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