Aging a bird?

[Marc]

On a different thread, I posed the question of aging birds, but did not want to hijack the thread any further.

The area I am hunting, long spurs are a rare event (I believe due in part to the terrain, but that is another topic)...

Now, if I can see them, I can certainly tell a jake (beard length and uneven tail-fan), but I have heard plenty of toms give out those half-gobbles, or nervous gobbles...  I have heard jakes that sound like the king of the forest, and seen toms with weak gobbles...

On the hoof, how do you age birds?  How do you know you have two-year-olds working you? 

And in hand, how would you tell a two-year-old bird when the spurs on all these birds all look the same?

[Dtrkyman]

A 2 year old has a couple of the last feathers in his fan slightly shorter than the rest...not very noticeable... after that it's tough... anything after 3 is old and I doubt many make it to 4...5 would be ancient...I have had many jakes over the years gobble like a tom particularly in late season...Once in a while a tom has a weak gobble but not too often!

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[TauntoHawk]

Its all guess work really, in the field before harvest its just based on assumptions. What bird is the dominant bird that won't let others strut around him, who has the most hens, what bird gets the prime roosting spot, does he stand tall or have a larger wider barreled chest insinuating he's a bigger heavier bird, big thick swinging ropes help round out the illusion that you can field judge a bird on the fly. The inverse would also prove for younger toms, does he hang in a group of like birds but not have hens or many hens, does he look smaller bodied, or thin/weak beard.

That said the lack of ability to field judge and play trophy games with turkeys is one of my favorite things about turkey hunting, its more pure to what hunting is than what Whitetail hunting has become. You shoot based of the experience of the hunt and having a legal tag not how big he is or if he's the most mature are his spurs or beard up to par with an arbitrary numeric measurement set as "trophy status".


Once dead there's really only 3 categories of aging a turkey. Jake, 2+, and probably 3+ (generally speaking you can distinguish between 2 and 3 but its not a certain clear cut thing either).

Jake - Short beard, defined amber tips on beard, stepped or uneven fan feather, blunt nubs for spurs, generally smaller bodied with flat chest and weak or broken gobble.
2+ - Full sized beard but generally not as hefty as an older bird, a few amber tips and strands will remain if help to good light, moderate spurs >1" not much curve or sharpness and generally not as wide at the base as an older bird
3+ birds have hefty jet black beards, large sharp/curved spurs or wide spurs that show sign of being broken or heavily worn down. Generally a larger bird with heavy chest.

Food, location, sub species, terrain, harshness of winter, timing of hatch all can play a roll so there are zero absolutes. Genetics is huge that simply can't be measured or predicted. If some birds grow multiple beards, some grow no spurs than why wouldn't some birds grow spurs or beards at different length rates than birds of the same area with different genetics despite equal age.


Some of the birds I consider to be the oldest I've killed didn't have the longest spurs. I wish I had a picture of the comparison from last year But I had shot a 2yr old and another bird from the same place about 400yds apart last year. The "older" birds toe nails were so worn down they were nearly gone they were 1/4 of the length of the toe nails from the 2yr old this coming from the same terrain. The bigger birds spurs were only 1-1/8" long but were massively thick at the base where they attached to the leg and showed physical rings where it looked like he had broken them down and regrown the ends. That's certainly not a spur length that's gonna draw alot of attention on the internet but to me he was an Old Old bird that acted like it. Roosted away from the other gobblers hardly gobbled but would strut non stop for his pile of hens that he kept to himself.

[GobbleNut]

I think it is reasonably easy to tell a two-year-old gobbler of the Eastern, Rio Grande, or Merriams varieties, at least in the places I have hunted.  Their spurs are invariably noticeably rounded on the tips, have little noticeable curvature, and seem to vary from 5/8" to around 1".  Three year olds are almost always more pointed, starting to show some curvature, and are generally a bit longer, but not necessarily a lot.  A lot of times, they will also appear a bit more polished than a two-year-olds spurs, which typically are a bit dull looking.   

Now, although I have not seen a lot of Osceola's "up close and personal", I have seen enough of them to state pretty confidently that spur development in that subspecies is "more pronounced" than the other three.  A two-year-old Osceola will look like a 3+ bird of the other three subspecies mentioned.

Finally, Gould's are a total crapshoot in aging based on spurs.  Many of them don't have spurs at all, or only one spur, or anything in between.  You can't even begin to guess a Gould's gobblers age from his spurs.

[g8rvet]

I just cut their head off and count the rings!   

[greentag]

to me a 2 year olds spurs look like candy corn,even if they are worn the still have that triangular candy corn look,3 year olds and older will will generally have that curve a little and the bottom not as candy corn looking,if that makes any sense,any how thats how i think and ours in eastern ky get worn quite a bit. also the 2 year olds are the ones usually running around the fields gobbling at everything.the older ones,well they are more sneaky and tough.

[Gooserbat]

I like to just shoot anything with a full fan.

[tomstopper]

I like to just shoot anything with a full fan.

[dejake]

A couple of guys hit the nail on the head.  Like antlers, older birds will have larger spur bases.  In hand, it's easier to say bird A is older than bird B.  Assigning a numerical age is tough, though.