Ware County 8-Bearded Gobbler Should Rank 5th All-Time

What started as an unlucky run-in with COVID quickly turned into a Ware County hunt of a lifetime for Joey Wildes, of Waycross.

“My wife and I had been in quarantine for 10 days, and though we were blessed to not have more serious symptoms, I hadn’t felt like hunting since the diagnosis,” said Joey.

Joey Wildes with his Ware County tom that has eight beards.

After finishing up a day of work from his home office, Joey made the decision to head to his hunting club for an afternoon hunt.

After arriving and signing in, Joey talked with a fellow club member who recommended he try an area of the property that Joey wasn’t too familiar with.

“Honestly, I didn’t have a clue of what to expect in the area I was headed to hunt, but after being stuck in the house for over a week it was nice to get out in the woods,” he said.

Joey made the pivotal decision to walk several hundred yards down the tract, which was situated between the currently flooded 17 Mile Creek and the Satilla River.

“I got set up about 150 yards from where a food plot intersected the road, and I called off and on for the next 30 minutes. Then a work call came in, and I had to take it,” said Joey.

After spending several minutes taking care of his business call, Joey was convinced his hunt was over. But, he decided to make a last-ditch effort walking a few hundred more yards into the bottom.

“I ran out of breath after a few minutes, I could blame it on covid, or just being old and out of shape, but I wasn’t walking any farther,” said Joey.

Joey decided to aggressively call and got an immediate response from a gobbler. He quickly called back to the tom to confirm what he thought he had heard, and the bird thundered back once more.

Joey estimated the tom was a few hundred yards deep in the bottom and made a quick move down the road to close the distance on the turkey.

After getting situated, Joey began calling to the gobbler. The two locked in a cat and mouse game for the next 45 minutes. The bird would close to inside of 100 yards and then move back to where he started.

“I decided to run away from him, and play hard to get,” said Joey. “I went 100 yards back down the road from him and called. When he responded, I hurried back to my stuff and belly crawled off the road and into the bottom.”

That’s when Joey realized a flooded slough was keeping the bird from coming to his calling. Joey continued to quietly crawl along the edge of the water until he found a spot where he could see across. It was also the perfect spot because there was a tree he could use as a rest for his gun.

“As soon as I called to the bird, he thundered back, and I knew this time he was coming right to me,” said Joey.

Joey readied his Remington 870 and detected movement on high ground on the edge of the water. To his surprise two gobblers were quickly closing the distance to less than 40 yards.

“When their heads lined up 16 inches apart, I felt confident I could knock both birds down, and that’s when I squeezed the trigger and let the pellets fly,” said Joey.

Both birds hit the ground flopping, and without hesitation Joey took off his shirt and boots, emptied his pockets and hurried to swim across the flooded water to the birds.

“I didn’t care how deep it was, I was getting to those turkeys, I lost a good tom last year that flopped around and then took off on me, there was no way I wanted to do that again,” said Joey.

After making it across to the downed birds, Joey couldn’t believe his eyes as they were the two biggest turkeys he’d ever killed, both with long spurs and one with more beards than he’d ever seen.

“I called some friends as I made the long wet walk back to the truck and described the bigger gobbler to them on the phone. They instantly became super excited and told me I had killed what sounded like a record-caliber tom,” said Joey. “I couldn’t believe it, I had heard of birds with two or three beards but nothing more than that.”

The giant gobbler had eight beards, and it was scored the next day, racking up some extremely impressive numbers. The eight beards measured 10 2/8, 7 6/8, 6 4/8, 7 4/8, 4 6/8, 7 3/8, 6 and 5 2/8 inches. The 20-lb., 12.6-oz. bird had spurs measuring 1 1/2 and 1 3/8 inches.

These measurements push the gobbler’s score to a solid score of 160.25, which would make it the No. 5 Georgia bird of all time after all NWTF requirements are met.

“I still can’t believe it, my first double ever turkey hunting, and I killed two big toms. I managed to kill another gobbler to tag out for the season and that’s a first for me, as well. The 2021 season has been truly unforgettable,” said Joey.