my question to you turkey pros is what's considered a trophy bird. over the last 7 years I've felt like I've learned alto about how to kill birds but I've never been in the turkey hunting "scene". living in Minnesota i hunt Easterns and have shot a few that i think are good birds. looking online to see how to score a birds over the last 3 years I've shot 2 scoring 65-70 and this year i got one that scores 70-71 (just ruff measurements) all the birds were single beards and spurs.
so my question to you all. what makes a bird a trophy? several beards? heavy weight? or is it the intrinsic aspect, how where or with how you took it with?
I like the hooks. I like heavy birds. I like paintbrush beards. I really like birds without so much as a feather out of place after he's killed.
But...........a trophy is a strutting, gobbling, adult bird that is standing at the end of my barrel that I'm about to squeeze the trigger on. Anything past that is just an added bonus.
I've spent a lot of time passing whitetails in hopes of trophy antlers and will continue to do so, but I don't turkeys to ever end up that way beyond passing a jake (most of the time).
thanks for the quick response. what about specific #? what makes a trophy bird in lbs?, 22, 23,25? beard 11" 12" 13"? length? spurs 1" 1.5"?
i know its a difficult question to answer. I'm wondering what a average guideline would be to make an experienced hunter take notice and say "wow" that's a quality bird, i'd mount that.
I usually don't look too much into the weight. You get sharp curved spurs that are 1 1/4" and thats a trophy to me. Any beard over 10" with spurs mentioned above and that is a trophy turkey. You can get a corn fed 2 year old that weighs 25+ lbs and too me it's still a 2 y/o. Not that a 2 y/o is bad but we are talking trophies or mounting turkeys. I would much rather have an 18 lber with 1 1/2" spurs and 11" beard. JMO
TRKYHTR
If I had to choose between weight, beard, or spurs..........spurs would define a big bird........but I've just never used the term "trophy turkey". I'm not dead set against it............but it never has been a term I've grown accustomed to.
I guess if you want a number.......somewhere around 1 1/4" spurs make me take notice. I killed one with 1 3/16" curved spurs earlier this year and took notice of the spurs and was quite happy with them. My brother killed a bird that had 1 1/2" heavy spurs and I said...........wow!
As far as mounting a bird. I was previously a taxidermist, so mountable animals for me, especially turkeys, has more to do with how pristine their feathers are after the shot. A bird that rolls half way down a mountain after being shot through the tail fan, had his head demolished by a boot, then flopped into a mud hole...........doesn't get mounted if he has 2" spurs. A turkey mount for me isn't about the spurs, beard, or weight, but instead about the bird as a whole and a beat up bird doesn't do it for me.
Felix, to me a trophy turkey is an mature Tom that I have called in gobbling and strutting to my gun. I've fooled him. I've earned him. But if you're looking for pure numbers you might want to go to the NWTF Records site at:
http://www.nwtf.org/all_about_turkeys/turkey_records.php
Just a quick look there tells me that the Record Eastern scored 104.8125 points. The bird weighed 33.5625 lbs. Had a 2.25 " spur and a beard that was 13.75" long. You can search the records by state, bird type etc. Take a look at it. If your bird scores a 71 then that would put you about 1275 people below the top bird tied with 28 other people for 373rd place in the records. You can put your bird in the record too. The only qualification is that you are a member of NWTF and you've got $10 to pay for it.
Just remember that what makes something a trophy is in the eyes of the beholder. And it doesn't cost $10.
I would say a definite trophy bird to me would be one with 1.5" hooks. Those are rare. Ones that I want to get mounted, my first double beard, and one with 1.25" hooks or longer. I have seen some big gobblers and when you look at them you have to say they are trophy birds. I am out for the fun of hunting them and my love of it. If I happen to get lucky to get the "trophy" bird then that is extra, but they are all trophys in one way or another. I have at least on tail feather from every bird I killed, and I have the spurs and beard of every one I killed except one.
Personally, getting any Tom out of some of the crap land I've hunted was a trophy.
I'd have to say anything I put on the ground
If I had to put a number on beard, weight, or spurs that would make it a trophy, I would say anything with 1-1/4" spurs or longer.
Like most of the other guys, for me it's more about how you got the bird that makes the trophy for me. I have had ten minute hunts that resulted in long-spurred birds that I was not nearly as proud of as a several day or even several week long hunt of a particular bird that ended up having spurs less than 1". Other times I think it's a trophy because I was able to share the hunt with my dad or my brother or a nephew. The ones I am most proud of and the hardest to get were the ones I didn't even shoot myself.
I have never added up a score on a turkey and don't know if I care to.
Quote from: drenalinld on May 11, 2011, 08:37:40 AM
I have never added up a score on a turkey and don't know if I care to.
Until I got into the Turkey contests, I don't believe I had ever scored any Turkeys either. Before I got on the Turkey Sites, I wasn't even aware there was a scoring system. However, I wish I had known when one of my sons shot his first Turkey in Iowa, because it was a multibearded Hoss with long spurs. Would have probably been a top 10 Iowa bird if scored.
One that struts, gobbles and is close enough that I can hear him thruuum. If I kill him, all the better!
:smiley-patriotic-flagwaver-an
I must have missed that your question said "turkey pros". I should have left the responses to someone else. Mr 100 should have had the floor. ;D
Quote from: hobbes on May 11, 2011, 10:40:29 AM
I must have missed that your question said "turkey pros". I should have left the responses to someone else. Mr 100 should have had the floor. ;D
Do not worry, for a Mr. 100 did take the floor and respond. I am like you I missed that part and should of kept my opinion to myself. :TooFunny:
Spurs, beard, weight (in that order) and how you kill him.
i agree with alot of you. my 2 favorite birds to date are the one i killed this year (because of the difficulty and how he came in. size was a bonus) and the bird i called in for my 11 year old cousin. it was only a 2 year old but it was his first bird ever. it made me proud to be apart of it.
Quote from: A. Felix on May 11, 2011, 12:11:44 AM
what makes a bird a trophy?
The instant I decide to pull the trigger turns him into a trophy.
But any of the below give him special recognition for me.
1 1/4" or more spurs!
20" or more of beard!
21 lbs. or bigger!
Takes three or more days of hunting to kill him!
Any bird I shoot is a trophy to me.
That being said, a nice set of long curved hooks is what makes me say "WOW!"
(http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/limbwalker1/91bb55c3.jpg)
Okay guys, lets not get all wrapped around the axle on this Turkey scoring mess. First thing you know we'll be doing like the deer hunters. We'll have people farming turkeys and geneticly altering them for long spurs and beards and shooting them up with steroids to make them heavy. Then the rich guys will be paying thousands of dollars to shot the record book birds in really high high fence ranches. Then we're just one one jump from Turkey hunting tournaments and Turkey Masters or some such nonsense.
Any mature Turkey you call in and kill is a trophy. Period.
Quote from: Nimrodmar10 on May 12, 2011, 01:52:00 PM
Okay guys, lets not get all wrapped around the axle on this Turkey scoring mess. First thing you know we'll be doing like the deer hunters. We'll have people farming turkeys and geneticly altering them for long spurs and beards and shooting them up with steroids to make them heavy. Then the rich guys will be paying thousands of dollars to shot the record book birds in really high high fence ranches. Then we're just one one jump from Turkey hunting tournaments and Turkey Masters or some such nonsense.
Any mature Turkey you call in and kill is a trophy. Period.
Not that I dissagree, but why does it have to be mature to be a trophy? That in itself is like a lot of hunters deer hunting mentality.
For me it is the hunt itself and the way a bird comes in, if he's not hot and I can get him interested enough to come take a look it is that much better. Long beards, sharp spurs and heavy are just the little extras that make it better.
(http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab7/Gobln2/005-1.jpg?t=1305391515)
as the wise old hunter once said you can't eat the horns. well same goes for beard and spurs. although I am looking for a big old 1 1/2" set of spurs myself.
If going by weight....24 pounds or more.
If going by beards....Mature gobbler with total of beards being over 20 inches.
If going by spurs.....over 1 inch is a good bird, but over 1.25 is a true trophy to me.
But like stated by so many people above, every bird is a trophy. They are so dang fun/hard to hunt that I have never regretted pulling the trigger on one. Even jakes. :z-guntootsmiley: