About 20-25 years ago, I was hunting in Ruffin with my good friend Dennis who many of you know. We did not do any good first thing, so we separated and I soon walked up to the edge of a big field. I saw a big bird strutting probably 125 yards or so out. He would strut away from me for 8 seconds or so before turning back towards me for the same amount of time. The field had a lot of tall grass so I said what the heck, I am gonna try. The wind was blowing good from him towards me. When he would turn away , I would run for about 6 seconds and hide in the grass. I eventually got to where I knew my gun would kill him, shot and was amazed at what happened. The bird jumped 6-8 feet up in the air, feathers flew as if an internal bomb had gone off. When I got to him, he was losing even more by flopping but he only had about 6 tail feathers left and most of his wing and body feathers were scattered about. It looked almost like you picked him there. We found nothing wrong with him and the meat was fine. Somewhere I have pics that I will post if I find them of me holding the 6 feather fan up and laughing.

In telling this story to a turkey hunter I knew, he told me of some process that a turkey can shed almost all his feathers at once in rare occasions. There was a name for it, and I found a video somewhere showing one project probably 80-90% of his feathers at once. I am 72 and forget my own name sometimes, but if I find more info, I will post.