Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Let's talk beards and spurs

Just outta curiosity..........

Where you hunt the most, what are typical beard and spur measurements ?? What your personal bests ??

Particularly curious, Luther.............what's the longest one on that telephone line of spurs of yours ??

My favorites are the ones with 3/4 to 7/8" spurs 👍

On the farm I hunt most, if you get a bird with spurs over 1 1/8" he is a Boone and Crocket bird! Beards usually run around 9 to 10 range. Some a hair longer (pun intended)

I don't usually bother with exact measurements I suspect I have several pushing a little over inch and a half...
I remember one of the longest and keenest spurs on a gobbler with a screwed up beard. I was walking out and ran into the guy that took me to his spot....he said there's a gobbler in the next field that's been gobbling every now and then....he said it had been a while since he had heard him.
I asked where's the property line....he said the big lone oak....I said let's go to the oak tree. It was huge tree with low draping limbs with briars underneath and no where to sit down

I told Tony we were going to have to just stand and call...Tony said he was going to just kneel down that he didn't think he couldn't stand that long.
I put my gun on my shooting stick and Tony kneeled....when I hit my trumpet call I could tell from his response that he was going to come.

I whispered to Tony don't f'n move he's going to come.

When the gobbler came into the field and gobbled I immediately answered him with a diaphragm call he came right back....he gobbled and I cut in on him every time....he came gobbling at every step all the way to the gun....I shot him at about about 15 yards my buddy Tony said "I ain't never seen anything like it I didn't think you were ever going to shoot him"..."I wasn't going to shoot him until he stopped"...truthfully the gobbler was about to get too close (technically I shot this bird over the line).

Until I got my foot on his neck I figured him for a two year old.

So you can't judge a turkey by his cover.....If there's a turkey heaven I hope my late friend Tony Gallo is there.

Beards I think I've shot two or three that hit a full 12 inches.

Truth is the two year old can be as tuff to kill as an older turkey.

I get a kick outta guys that say "I passed on a two year old". I've been hunting them a LONG time. If you can tell at 20 or 30 or 40 yards that it's a two year bird.......you're a lot better at it than I am. A buck.........you see what he is and you shoot him. A full-fanned gobbler.......you shoot him and go see what he is.

Spur-wise, here, the typical spring bird will be 3/4" to 1 1/4". I figure 2-4 years old is the average bird I shoot. In all my years, I've killed ONE 1 1/2" spur. Not a pair. The other spur was 1 1/4". A good many 1 5/16" - 1 3/8". Beards run 9"-10" with boring regularity. I think I've only gotten 3 or so that were 11"+ But never hit 12". I've only seen two birds locally that had beards I figured were 12" or more.


Can be. Yep.

One of my favorite things to tell people is "Henned up gobblers are henned up gobblers no matter here you find them or WHAT color the tips of their tail feathers are".

Spurs are similar to peoples feet some wear a size 9 the next guy wears a 12....

I believe only real way to tell a turkey's age is by how keen/sharp the spur is and that is not absolute.

Yep.

The discussions of aging birds by spurs get awful heated. While nothing is absolute, I will tell you with 90-some percent accuracy how old a bird is HERE by its spurs.

1/2" and round is a jake
3/4"-7/8" and round is a 2 year bird
1 - 1 1/8" and starting to get sharp will be 3
1 1/8 - 1 1/4" and SHARP (unless broken) will be 4
1 3/8" - 1 1/2 is probably 5.

That's where it starts to get dicey. Too many growth and wear factors to be sure. But any spurs over 1 1/4" are attention getters. The other thing (like the size of feet you mentioned) is the "gauge" or heaviness of the spurs. One set of 1 3/8" spurs on a triple beard I shot here at home are pretty thin. Another set the same length that my daughter shot here look like freakin' bison horns.

Merriam's and Gould's are pretty much ALL rounded and worn. If you get much over an inch on either one, you done good.

Most of the birds I have killed, you don't see the spurs until you are standing next to it. Grass in the field or brush in the woods tend to hid them for the most part. When the bird is walking toward you, it is almost impossible to see them.
It is like Forest Gump's mother says about a box of chocolate, it is the same with spurs for me, you never know what you will get (size wise) until you get up to it.

I don't believe in the wear factor....I've killed some with broken spurs but I think it was caused by a vitamin deficiency or a fungus.

In southern Missouri the terrrain is pretty rocky going thing is as "they break their spurs on rocks"... I killed some nice clean looking spurs and turkeys with messed up spurs.
One thing I have observed is turkeys are pretty precise with their foot placement.... .I never saw one stumbling around with the exception of a gobbler I killed that had bobble foot.

I met an old man in Missouri that had lived there and Turkey hunted for 40 years he showed me his turkey feet one time and some were really impressive and some showed the white crusty signs of what I think is a fungus that causes their spurs to deteriorate.

I don't think spur length is a good indicator of age most of the time.

I killed a few with half inch sharp spurs....one in Mississippi comes to mind he had keen 1/2" jet black spurs.

Bottom line I say kill them all and let the turkey God's sort them out....

It's like Christmas morning walking up to one and seeing what ya got

Talking exceptions to the rule............

These are on an Osceola. Only 7/8". But sharper than they look. No WAY a spur that length would be anywheres CLOSE to sharp on one of our local birds.

A feller at the NWTF that thOught he was a full ColOnel....personally told me and my New YAwk buddy that he had seen the spurs on every bird he kilt before he kilt them.

He sent his legs to this guy in New YAwk that purtied spurs up...

My buddy that knew the purty spur guy told me he told him a lot of the legs had pellet holes in the feet....kinda puzzling to us.

I've never tried to see the spurs I just want to see them flopping....

I'd be very tempted to call bull schizen on that claim.

The guy was all bull schizen...

I'd guess if you were a roost shooter or one of them decoy hunting enclosed blind turkey shoOters (that think they're a turkey hunters) with a good pair of binoculars you might could look them over pretty good before you shot them.

Sounds plum despicable to me.....

Ever see a spur that turned straight up, Luther ??

Crazy lookin' thing.

Not a good pic and hard to see. But the other spur is totally normal.

Denise I've e witnessed deformity everytime you make a post....

Awwwww, shoot, Luther............ Ya REALLY got me with THAT one !!!

And you were doing SO WELL at being civil for a few hours, there...........

Shucks..........