What is the Oldest Tom You Have Known?

[TauntoHawk]

7 years because he was banded spurs were only 1 1/4 and 1 1/8 so it's hard to always judge based on that as with those alone I would have guessed and said 3 or 4.

I killed one that I have theorized as old based on being a massive bird with giant feet extremely worn down almost non existint toe nails with huge gnarled bases on his spurs had creases like there were growth rings where they had broken before and grown back but no possible way confirm anything.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

[briton]

The bird with the "crusty" feet. I saw a picture similar one time and Frostbite was one of the best guesses I heard?

[GobbleNut]

Great thread. Maybe you guys can let me know how old this guy was. In early 2000's, I harvested this NJ Gobbler. Very unique hunt, started him at 7:00 am, got him at 10:00 am. He had a very weird gobble, kinda of Jake like, high pitched. Very reluctant to show himself, I chased him 1/2  mile or so, repositioning several times. Finally, I got him to 30 yards. He weighed 22 pounds, the picture shows the beard and spurs. His feet were very prehistoric, crusty looking. His waddle has that brown spot. He looked different than any Gobbler I have ever seen. I welcome the forums thoughts on his age, thanks.... be safe

Based on the spurs, I would say he was a two-year-old.  That's not totally definitive by any means, but If I was to have to place a bet on it, I would bet on two. 

[crow]

Tom Horn,
I rode most of the Chisholm trail with him back in the old days

[LaLongbeard]

Tom Horn,
I rode most of the Chisholm trail with him back in the old days

Lol

[Vaughnrp2]

His name is Tom Shone. He used to come in with my uncle to bow hunt our farm every year during the last week of October. Haven't seen him in years. I guess he's still alive. Gotta be in his late 60's I'd imagine. Maybe older.   

That's funny


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Turkeyman]

I don't actually know the age of any birds I've gotten. However, several years ago in a sidebar of a turkey hunting magazine, I read of a Missouri bird which was trapped, tagged and transferred as a jake. He was killed seven years later and taken to the check station (mandatory at that time). As I recall, the weight was just under 20#, he had a 9 1/8" beard and 1 1/8" spurs. Those stats stick in my mind because I was surprised at the spur length.

[Papa]

The first bird I ever killed had a head as big around as a one pound coffee can and when he gobbled on the roost it sounded like you were shaking a can with marbles in it. He weighted  27 pounds and had a 10 1/2 inch beard, but his spurs were only 1 inch long.

[eggshell]

I'll share what I know on age. I ran a turkey check station for thirty + years and we checked banded birds from a research project. The first thing I'd say is just throw spur length out as a definitive aging tool. It will get you close, but past year two is totally an estimate. Jakes have a button, two years old 1/2 -3/4" with no curve, after that it's hard to tell. The spurs will start to curve some by year three and hook more as they age. So I'd say after three it's a +/- one or two years estimate. I can think of one instance where two hunters came in with banded birds from the same area. One bird had 1 1/4 slightly hooked spurs and the other had 1" straight spurs. Everyone guessed the old hook spur was at least a year older. I called the research center with the tag numbers and they informed me both birds were tagged as jakes at the same time and were both the same age. That same study showed that birds followed from jakes lived an average of three years before they were killed by hunters, on public ground. Private ground would probably have older birds. Gobbler mortality is high on hunted birds. We are far more efficient than we think we are. The oldest bird of verified age in that study was 8 or 9 if I remember right. From what I saw with known age banded birds, I wouldn't bet on any age over 3. Spur length and curve is most likely more a genetic issue then age in my opinion.

[RutnNStrutn]

One of my hunting buddies named Tom is 78 years old!!! That's an old Tom!!!

[LaLongbeard]

I never heard a single person in the southeast call a Gobbler a Tom until it started being common on the utube hunting videos. Never in a book never in a magazine it was always a yankee term. First time I heard it in person was in Pennsylvania years ago. But here in the south it's always been Longbeard or Gobbler a Tom was a cat.

[BBR12]

I'll share what I know on age. I ran a turkey check station for thirty + years and we checked banded birds from a research project. The first thing I'd say is just throw spur length out as a definitive aging tool. It will get you close, but past year two is totally an estimate. Jakes have a button, two years old 1/2 -3/4" with no curve, after that it's hard to tell. The spurs will start to curve some by year three and hook more as they age. So I'd say after three it's a +/- one or two years estimate. I can think of one instance where two hunters came in with banded birds from the same area. One bird had 1 1/4 slightly hooked spurs and the other had 1" straight spurs. Everyone guessed the old hook spur was at least a year older. I called the research center with the tag numbers and they informed me both birds were tagged as jakes at the same time and were both the same age. That same study showed that birds followed from jakes lived an average of three years before they were killed by hunters, on public ground. Private ground would probably have older birds. Gobbler mortality is high on hunted birds. We are far more efficient than we think we are. The oldest bird of verified age in that study was 8 or 9 if I remember right. From what I saw with known age banded birds, I wouldn't bet on any age over 3. Spur length and curve is most likely more a genetic issue then age in my opinion.

This has been my thoughts all along. Everybody on videos or in person runs up and looks at spurs and says he's a X year old. I've killed a lot less than some and a lot more than others and feel like you can tell easy on a jake and most of the time on a 2 year old (5/8-1" rounded). If 1" and sharp or curved he is 3+ that's about as much as you can tell from spurs. This basically means to me a bird grows approx. .5" of spurs a year, from there it is all based on how much they get worn down each year.  I read a study once where there was a 4 or older bird that had 3/4" dull rounded spurs, so it's really just a guess unless they are long and sharp. I've also noticed some birds that have big spurs coming out of the leg have a tendency to have longer spurs than birds that have smaller spurs coming out of the legs. I believe this is because the thicker they are the less they wear down.

[BBR12]

The oldest bird I ever killed that I felt like I knew I had hunted him for several years was at least 4. There was a bird that roosted on this small finger ridge that fell off into a swamp bottom. The ridge was only on our property for about 50 yds so almost impossible to get on the ridge with him. He did the same thing every year and was in an almost impossible place to get too him and wouldn't come to call.  Anyhow on year 3 or 4 I called him into a food plot that was a couple ridges over from his roost ridge. I shot him rolled him and he got up and ran off. I was sick cause I knew he was a stud and I had hunted him many many times.

Fast forward 1 year and I get on a bird not too far from the food plot a couple hours after daylight but he hi tales it across the neighbors 40. I am able to go down the property line to the next property 1/4 mile from the foodplot. I get a jake to gobble and head my way and the big bird is not going to have it. The big guy come running in following the jake and I kill him. His waddles were kind of crusty and his legs were yellowish which kind of had me questioning if something was wrong with him. This was the first bird I had ever killed with tss so I cut open his neck to see the damage. His neck was slap full of old shot and he even had a pellet in his snood. I knew immediatly it was the bird from the previous year. I had shot him with hevishot the year before and still don't know how he escaped it but he did and I was thankful to finish it.

I don't remember the specifics and don't have my log with me here, but he was in the 1.25" range on spurs and 9.5 on beard.

[Turkeyman]

I never heard a single person in the southeast call a Gobbler a Tom until it started being common on the utube hunting videos. Never in a book never in a magazine it was always a yankee term. First time I heard it in person was in Pennsylvania years ago. But here in the south it's always been Longbeard or Gobbler a Tom was a cat.

Well, I'm a "Yankee" and I always used to refer to age groups as either jakes or adult birds, not too often longbeards. Then I noticed quite a few guys referred to them as either jakes or toms. So I sort of adopted that. Thus, to me, they're all "gobblers" (although quite a few guys use this to refer to >1 YO), "jakes" are obvious, anything older is either "toms" or "longbeards". But in the end who really gives a rat's behind!

[Sir-diealot]

I never heard a single person in the southeast call a Gobbler a Tom until it started being common on the utube hunting videos. Never in a book never in a magazine it was always a yankee term. First time I heard it in person was in Pennsylvania years ago. But here in the south it's always been Longbeard or Gobbler a Tom was a cat.

Well, I'm a "Yankee" and I always used to refer to age groups as either jakes or adult birds, not too often longbeards. Then I noticed quite a few guys referred to them as either jakes or toms. So I sort of adopted that. Thus, to me, they're all "gobblers" (although quite a few guys use this to refer to >1 YO), "jakes" are obvious, anything older is either "toms" or "longbeards". But in the end who really gives a rat's behind!

I'm also from the North and I have always refereed to them as Jake's or Tom's and that goes back to around 95 or 96 at least.