A couple turkey questions for those more knowledgeable
First off it’s been a long season. I’ve absolutely had my butt kicked by these birds but finally bagged one today. The predators are the reason I was carrying my ar today and yes it’s legal to hunt turkey with rifle here.
The first 5 pictures are today’s bird. I’m hunting a couple hours west of Fort Worth so it should be a Rio grande. What’s throwing me off is this bird is particularly colorful and the fan has reddish cinnamon colors. It also has a swirled beard which I’ve never seen. Is this just a genetic odd ball?
In doing my research on Turkey subspecies I realized my first bird I shot 5 years ago may be an eastern or possibly hybrid. I was not aware we had both here even though easterners are exceptionally rare this far out. What do yall think?