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Gobbler to brag about
Monticello’s Heath Marty sets Wisconsin, national records with six-bearded turkey
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Monticello’s Heath Marty broke two national records and the Wisconsin state record for an eastern wild turkey he shot with a crossbow May 12 just outside of New Glarus. Marty and friend Casey Wirth used a turkey fan to lure the bird, which measured at more than 25 pounds and was equipped with six beards, shown below.

MONTICELLO — On a midday crossbow turkey hunt just outside of New Glarus, Heath Marty came home with the highest prized gobbler in American history.

The 37-year-old Monticello native was with friend Casey Wirth May 12 just outside of New Glarus. Marty’s bird, an eastern wild turkey, broke the Wisconsin record and two national records. Weighing in at 25 pounds, 6 ounces after harvest, with six beards ranging between 11 3/16 inches and 3 5/16 inches, the gobbler totaled a grand score of 132.75.

“It’s huge,” Marty said of the bird, adding that after he shot it, Wirth approached for closer look and told him, “‘No wonder it’s so big, it’s got six freaking beards.’”

“It ended up way higher than what they rough scored it at,” Marty said. “It almost doubled Wisconsin’s previous record and beat the national eastern (wild turkey) record by almost 35 points and the overall national record by about 12 points.”

Marty set the national record, according to the National Wild Turkey Federation, for the Best Overall Score for not only the eastern but any subspecies harvested with a crossbow. He also had national rankings of No. 7 in the heaviest eastern harvested with a crossbow in the nation and the second heaviest in Wisconsin.

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Monticello’s Heath Marty broke two national records and the Wisconsin state record for an eastern wild turkey he shot with a crossbow May 12 just outside of New Glarus. The bird measured more than 25 pounds and was equipped with six beards as shown.

“I used a turkey fan I made myself. I put it on a wood block and mounted a handle to it and had my best friend with me,” Marty said. “We saw this turkey coming through the hay field towards us with this decoy thing; and (Wirth was) running in front of me and belly crawling, and I’m belly crawling behind him with my bow, and we kept slowly inching towards him. We got to within about 30 to 35 yards and shot him.”

Marty was blown away by the excessive number of beards on the turkey. He said from an angle at first it looked like one large beard. 

“Had it gobbled and stretched his head out we would have seen it,” said Marty, who now lives outside of New Glarus and works in construction.

Marty got letters from the NWTF certifying his shots and national and state records. 

“It wasn’t that I beat any record by a couple of points — I doubled the Wisconsin record. They wrote up a pretty cool certificate and sent me a pretty cool pin from the National Turkey Federation,” he said. “They got all excited about it, which got me all excited about it. It’s pretty cool.”

The bird is in a storage freezer right now, waiting to be mounted.

“It’s going to be mounted as if it’s gobbling, so all of its beards will be dangling and you’ll be able to see them all,” Marty said.

Marty said that having Wirth with him made the experience better, not just because of the help.

“That’s probably why I was so blessed to have my best friend with me,” he said. “A lot of times I have to hold that fan with one hand and shoot my bow with my other hand. It makes it interesting — holding up a crossbow in one arm and a turkey fan in the other.”

“I learned a long, long time ago in the hunting world that it pays to sit back and be cautious before you go into attack mode.”
Heath Marty

Marty grew up in the country and has been a hunter nearly all his life. He hunted squirrels and rabbits as a youngster and then chased deer and smaller game as he got older. It was only a short time ago that he began crossbow hunting turkeys in earnest, however.

“I grew up on a farm and been hunting my whole life,” Marty said.  “I was deer hunting by the time I was 12, shooting bow. I blew out my shoulder playing mud volleyball, so I can’t pull back anymore. Me being the hunter that I am and wanting to be in the woods all the time, I got into crossbows so I could stay out.”

He once collected a 14-point buck, and his last two bucks scored in the 150s.

“I’ve gotten some pretty healthy deer,” Marty said. “And I’ve got a pretty healthy arsenal, too.”

Marty uses Wisconsin-made bows and other equipment because he said he likes to be able to call and talk to someone local at the nearby factory if there is an issue. While Marty pays attention to hunting media and new equipment, he said most of what he’s learned over the years has been through personal trial and error.

“If I see something on TV, I might buy it and try it. If it works, great, if it doesn’t, oh well,” Marty said. “I learned a long, long time ago in the hunting world that it pays to sit back and be cautious before you go into attack mode. I’ve spent many hours in fields just watching what the animals are doing in their natural habitat before I go out in there and start hunting.”