12'' beards

[GobbleNut]

GobbleNut- that blows my mind. I have never hunted Miriam but plan to. I like their fan but had no idea they were that small.

One thing about Merriam's is that they actually look bigger than they actually are (in terms of weight, at least) due to the fact that they are heavily feathered and have large fans.  I suppose the more dense feathering is an adaptation to the cold, mountain climates that they historically have inhabited. 

[joey46]

From 2008.  11 7/8"  closest I've come to the mythical 12".  Monster spurs also.  Had a very small fan.  Just being in the right place at the right time.  We had a full fan decoy out and he was afraid to challenge it but came close enough. 

Not even going to try to turn the picture.  I have more trouble with pictures.  Oh well.  Happy New Year.

[Yoder409]

42 years of killing these things under my belt and I've yet to tag my first footlong.  11" is the best I've ever killed. 

Only ever SAW one bird that I was sure swung a foot and that particular bird likely was 13 or 14 inches.  But............it was a weird bird for this area.  Very small...........guessing 14 pounds.  But HELL for long-legged.  Watched him all summer long through a 45X spotting scope in my front window. He hung with 4 other longbeards.  Never, ever did run across him in the woods.

[guesswho]

From 2008.  11 7/8"  closest I've come to the mythical 12".  Monster spurs also.  Had a very small fan.  Just being in the right place at the right time.  We had a full fan decoy out and he was afraid to challenge it but came close enough. 

Not even going to try to turn the picture.  I have more trouble with pictures.  Oh well.  Happy New Year.

More spur info please.  If that's not a shadow underneath it, those are huge.

[eggshell]

here ya go

[joey46]

Thanks for the picture fix.  When we registered this bird it showed right spur 1.625/left spur 1.50.  It weighed 20# even.  We "may" have a game camera picture in 2017/2018 of one that beats this one but he disappeared in 2019.  We nicknamed him "Big Red".   Fun game.

[Wvdanimal]

 I suppose my wife has the kind of turkey luck every one of us wishes for. Her first bird ever was a double beard w 10 1/2" and 7 1/2" beards. 2 years ago she completed her slam with a 12" beard on a huge Osceola. I've killed a pile in my days including several Osceola with over 11" but never hit the 12 mark. In my experience at least on my lil ranch near Okeechobee,  Florida is the place for the longest beards.

[Neill_Prater]

I have killed several birds with legitimate 12 inch beards. Not sure of the exact number, because I didn't keep a record of the statistics.

Interestingly enough, two I do recall I killed here in Missouri, about 3 miles and several years apart. Both had spurs at least 1 1/4 inch. They were two of the smallest gobblers I ever killed, weighing in the 12 to 13 pound range. The first of the two took almost three hours to get into gun range, and I remember when I ran up to grab him (hey, I was younger then!), I almost threw him over my shoulder because I expected him to be a monster.

Longest bearded bird I ever killed was in Kansas in the 1990's. He would have made it into the record books but for my ignorance. I noticed after killing him that he had a few strands of extremely long beard, but didn't really think much of it, so crammed him as usual for the trek back to the Jeep.

By the time I got there and wrestled him out of the vest, only a couple of the maybe dozen original long strands remained. I measured them, and they were 17 1/2 inches! Still didn't think much of it, so cleaned the bird and headed for home.

It was some time later when I read about the scoring system the NWTF used and discovered you only need a single intact strand to claim that length.

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[WW]

I've been killing turkeys for 24 years now and have only killed one bird that was 12". I also have only killed one that had 1.5 spurs. It's something that's hard to come by.

[Hersh]

I've killed a number of birds and been on a bunch of hunts with friends and have only ever seen 2 birds with legit 12" beards. 

[Chad Gus715]

Can only think of one legit 12 inch beard killed here in Wisconsin, by anyone that i know. The snow up here doesn't help, I've seen a lot of toms with ice balls on there beards here.

[3chunter]

I have killed 3 with 12" of beard at least Them swamp easterns get long beards and not much to rub them down.  Won a contest in 2000 i think it was with one that had 13" beard and 1 3/8 spurs. $300 was a lot for a junior in high school at the time.

[MK M GOBL]

This will be my 30th spring and have been on the gun for 1 over 12" and 1 that's close, I called in another for a buddy that was 12 1/4". Best spurs I have called in are 1 15/16" the other was broke off.


MK M GOBL

[AndyH]

I've killed two eastern gobblers with 12" beards and have 2 Eastern's and 2 Osceola's with spurs 1 1/4" or better but still have yet to shoot a legit 1 1/2" spurred gobbler.


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[THattaway]

I've seen one beard that was a legit 13" on a tom I called for a friend. Main beard portion was 11" with about 6-8 strands longer. Have killed a number 11"-11.25" but never a 12". Hunted one bird a couple years that I am sure was over 12", had a "J" shaped beard, close calls but never a shot. FWIW, woods turkeys here in upstate SC generally have shorter 9-10" beards and field turkeys generally run longer, even on two year olds. My thoughts are it's probably due to the wear from more scratching the woods birds do.