Is beard length a consistent way to determine if the gobbler is a mature bird? I have limited experience with Merriam's and seems like some have a full fan and short beard like a jake.
Absolutely not, especially with Merriams. Look for a full fan and forget about the beard. Half of them I've killed have had little spindly ones or even none at all. Freezing off, other factors, and their environment in general doesn't lead to the vast majority of them having long, thick beards. Some will but definitely not how you want to judge mature birds vs jakes. Look for a full fan.
Ditto on what PharmHunter said...
The answer to your question is...no. From my experience, Merriam's gobblers generally have less-well-developed beards than any of the other subspecies. In addition, Merriam's jakes generally have barely-visible beards, if they are visible at all. However, there are exceptions to that rule. I once killed what turned out to be a jake that had a 9" beard!
Also, it is not unusual for a mature Merriam's gobbler to have a beard that would be comparable to that of a jake of another subspecies. Bottom line is that beards on adult Merriam's gobblers can vary a bunch and rarely are an indicator of the age of the bird. When evaluating one, the fan is the most reliable indicator in a hunting situation.
I concur, my first afternoon I passed on a bird that came gobbling to my set up because I saw a short stubby beard and my mind said jake. Outfitter told me that night it was most likely a gobbler with a frozen off beard. I ended up with tag soup that trip as he was the only one I had within range that trip.
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Quote from: GobbleNut on April 28, 2022, 09:59:36 AM
When evaluating one, the fan is the most reliable indicator in a hunting situation.
As I have not hunted Merriams, I did not know that beard length was often so small... Long and spindly, or simply short?
Do you end up passing on a lot of birds that do not strutt?
I have shot many birds based on the fan in tall grass... But I have shot more that did not strutt based on a swingin' beard. I cannot tell the Rio jakes from toms based on their gobbling...
Merriams top my list for a bird to hunt... A lot based on the landscape and areas to hunt them... But I would be curious as to how to pick out toms if the beard length is not a good indicator???
The length of the wing coverts is another way to differentiate jakes from mature gobblers - jake coverts are about half the length of a mature tom's. I killed a Merriam's a few years back that had about a 6" beard sticking out like a jake's. He had been strutting, but not with a clear enough view to be certain by the fan. When he turned sideways, the wing coverts made it clear he was a mature tom.
Quote from: Marc on April 30, 2022, 01:28:50 AM
As I have not hunted Merriams, I did not know that beard length was often so small... Long and spindly, or simply short?
Do you end up passing on a lot of birds that do not strutt?
Merriams top my list for a bird to hunt... A lot based on the landscape and areas to hunt them... But I would be curious as to how to pick out toms if the beard length is not a good indicator???
Actually, from my experience, it is quite rare not to be able to distinguish a Merriam's jake from a gobbler by the beard alone. For one, Merriam's birds are usually willing strutters. From what I have seen, it is the rare gobbler that doesn't come to a call strutting at least part of the time. That would obviously solve the "full fan or not" dilemma.
Secondly, even though there are occasional mature gobblers that have very short beards, they are generally still going to be longer and perhaps a bit more full than a jake. Again, Merriam's jakes very often have barely visible beards, if visible at all. It is rare that the beard will extend more than an inch or two beyond the breast feathers. Conversely, it is a rare mature gobbler that doesn't have a beard at least a couple of inches longer than that.
As I mentioned, in over five decades of hunting the Merriam's subspecies, there has only been one occasion where I shot a jake (based on the beard) that I mistakenly thought was a mature gobbler. That bird had a beard over nine inches. He didn't strut and I shot him pretty soon after he appeared based on that beard. Walked up to gather him up and was shocked to see that he had a jake fan and nubs for spurs. ...Sure fooled me!
Merriam's and long beards usually don't coincide... But there's always the one.
I agree with the other posts. If you want a long, thick beard you may not want to hunt merriams! Beards are super spindly, often short, or extremely thin and around 9ish" long at the longest. The videos My mouth drops when I see how thick and long some of the eastern toms are!