Spur Question

[Stlbaseball1]

Father-in-law killed a turkey on Saturday. Long story short he was expecting him to be an old turkey (at least 3 year old) as he had his number last season as a mature tom. He had a 9.5 inch beard and weighed 20.8 lbs but only had 1/2 inch spurs. Now these little jokers were not your normal nub/rounded off 1/2 inch spurs. They were razor sharp and pointy but just extremely short. Question is has anyone seen this before? Either way, what are your thoughts as to why they were short but sharp. Old turkey or not?

 

[Setterman]

Yes I've seen them like that and always chalk it up to a two year with sharp short spurs.

My question is what made you think it was an old turkey prior to harvest?

 

[PalsPal]

Unless it had some peculiar identifying marks proving otherwise, I think its a different bird than the one he worked last season.

 

[Stlbaseball1]

Mainly just location and the partner he hung out with. We doubled. My bird had sharp 1 inch spurs. I guess the thought process is they were together last year and stayed together. I know this isn't always necessarily the case.

 

[Southern Sportsman]

My boss (old timer turkey hunter) has a mounted turkey in his cabin. It has decent spurs but nothing remarkable. 1 1/16" - 1 1/8" and fairly sharp. Most every turkey hunter I know would call it a 3 year old. But it was banded. It was released as a jake in 1989. He killed it in 1998. So it was 10 years old. I'm guessing when it was 3 or 4 or 5 it probably had sub-1" spurs. But that is likely a rare exception.

 

[FARMTOFIELD]

Hold the beard up into the light, if it's a 2 yr old there will be a ton of red in its beard tips

 

[Newt]

My boss (old timer turkey hunter) has a mounted turkey in his cabin. It has decent spurs but nothing remarkable. 1 1/16" - 1 1/8" and fairly sharp. Most every turkey hunter I know would call it a 3 year old. But it was banded. It was released as a jake in 1989. He killed it in 1998. So it was 10 years old. I'm guessing when it was 3 or 4 or 5 it probably had sub-1" spurs. But that is likely a rare exception.

That's pretty cool right there! That ol bird must of been one smart and tough cookie.. I am sure he beat a lot of hunters back in his prime

 

[catman529]

My boss (old timer turkey hunter) has a mounted turkey in his cabin. It has decent spurs but nothing remarkable. 1 1/16" - 1 1/8" and fairly sharp. Most every turkey hunter I know would call it a 3 year old. But it was banded. It was released as a jake in 1989. He killed it in 1998. So it was 10 years old. I'm guessing when it was 3 or 4 or 5 it probably had sub-1" spurs. But that is likely a rare exception.

I remember reading somewhere, I think it was posted here a few years ago, someone knew of a banded bird with 1 1/8" spurs that was killed at 12 years old. I think spur length is not an accurate way to age past 2 years old.

I fanned in a longbeard with a full fan a couple years ago that had 1/2 inch rounded nubs.

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[megalomaniac]

It's fairly common for a Turkey to tear a spur off, no different than ripping off a fingernail. After it tears off, a new spur will grow from the stump underneath. In that case you'd have a long spur on one side and a shorter one on the other. What would be unusual is for both spurs to get torn off at the same time, therefore regrowing at the same rate and size.

Methinks your dad killed a 2yo.

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[Southern Sportsman]

My boss (old timer turkey hunter) has a mounted turkey in his cabin. It has decent spurs but nothing remarkable. 1 1/16" - 1 1/8" and fairly sharp. Most every turkey hunter I know would call it a 3 year old. But it was banded. It was released as a jake in 1989. He killed it in 1998. So it was 10 years old. I'm guessing when it was 3 or 4 or 5 it probably had sub-1" spurs. But that is likely a rare exception.

I remember reading somewhere, I think it was posted here a few years ago, someone knew of a banded bird with 1 1/8" spurs that was killed at 12 years old. I think spur length is not an accurate way to age past 2 years old.

I fanned in a longbeard with a full fan a couple years ago that had 1/2 inch rounded nubs.

I've posted about it before. I'll take a picture next time I'm there.

 

[REN]

Spur length is just the best way to GUESS the age from a biological standpoint. No true way to age it without surgery:)

 

[encore06]

The bird I killed had 1/2 inch spurs, but they were wedge-shape and sharp, not rounded or pointed.