Which one do you think is the biggest?

Well, I wil save you the guessing...both jakes...but big jakes..they have the body of a gobbler and the mind of a gobbler as they struuted and gobbledike the big boys....afterthey left I had a bird come in silently straight behind me...he drummed about 15 feet behind me for ten minutes..He was so close that his air sack sounded like a paper bag wadding up every time he re-filled his lungs..the spit was righton top of me...I never saw him anddid not want to risk the roll-over shot that is a one in ten chance...I havebeenwatchingthese birds from a field for soem time(pictures of them post earlier in the pre-season picutres) and I know the bird that was drumming hadto be the war-daddy ofthe field...still a great hunt..interestingly, the flash on my digital did not bother the birds....

Gn, I can't tell. What were you doin sittin in a thicket! ..........So which one rode to the house?

Good pic's GN.
Gets me fired up!
GS...

Would have fooled me. The one on the right looks a tad larger in the body, but I wouldn't have figured either one was a jake. You sure grow em big in TN. Sounds like a fun hunt. Thanks for sharing the fun.

GN You sure about that I want to see a frontal Fan pic..ha ha
Look like big boys to me from that angle.
Cool stuff onthe big boy close behind. I bet your heart was racing.
Did you have 2 little turkeys on your shoulder...one telling you to rool over and shoot the other one saying stay put, dont move..LOL

As I was leaving for work this morning, I saw three big puff balls in the distance in a field. So I broke out the binoculars...3 big jakes strutting around a single hen. Sure was nice to watch. I wonder if a big daddy came by to ruin their morning. I've noticed the jakes here are Bold early on, but my the end of April they've been taught a few lessons!

neill' s comment raises a point i have been discussing with some folks.I thnk the poor hatch from a few years ago has left east Ten without a lot of two year old birds. Thu s the jakes have very few big mentors to "school them"..twice in the last few days i have watched groups of jakes drive a bigger longbeard from the hens...just a street gang of jakes jumping a long beard trying to strut and they run him away from the hens. These two jakes that are in this picture were part of one of those gangs I am sure, as the field where I watched that was only a few hundred yards away from the picture location.

Gobblenow, i think something of that nature has happened in the area i hunt (North Middle Tn).
During the opening four days of our season i witnessed countless jakes stutting and gobbling and several had hens in tow. I saw one longbeard circle completely around a group of 5 jakes and 5 hens but never once gobbled or strutted for them.He left the field on the opposite side from the Jakes and was never seen again. I beleive he had been whooped by multiple jakes at some point and time. Another longbeard came in but never gobbled and never attempted to strut. I think some of the older birds have been taking a beating by these "Super Jakes" A friend of mine called in a bird on Monday. It gobbled its head off and strutted all the way in until the swarm of pellets knocked it for a loop. When we got to the bird it was a Jake. It had a full fan and weighed 18lbs but only had nub spurs and a 5" beard.

GN gotta love those red white and blue heads coming through the woods!!
Nice pictures

one of the groups of bully jakes I have seen is near corryton btw.

Gobblenow....good pic's...