Spurs?

Of all the years turkey hunting in Minnesota I’ve never been able to break the 1in spur mark. Is it just a eastern’s don’t grow long spurs or just a Minnesota thing?

That’s a great question. I don’t have enough experience to speak to this, but I’m interested to here what some more seasoned guys have to say about this.

O no they will definitely grow spurs exceeding 1″. As I’ve come to understand it, age is the driving force. It pretty much takes a bird 3 years to grow 1″ spurs and 4 to get over 1.25″. Some 2 YO birds could have 1″ spurs but not much over, and only in some cases. I believe Missouri conservation did a study a long while back relating bird spur length to a age

So in a nut shell, you’re not running into older birds.

The only Tom that i’ve killed in MN had 7/8″ spurs. But, the Iowa Tom that i shot this year had 1 7/16″ and 1 3/8″ spurs

I’ve been hunting turkeys on our land in south central MN for 5 years now. The first bird I shot had 1 3/8″ spurs, no idea on age (11 3/8″ beard, 25-26lbs). Second bird was a jake, so age 1. Bird last year had 9/8″ spurs and was one of two jakes I watched on camera all fall-winter-spring, so age 2.

With little reading, and more hearing, I was under the assumption that spurs were fairly age dependent. With everything in nature though, I would presume that factors such as genetics, competition, nutrition, etc. play roles in variable degrees of importance.

Heres to hopefully your first 1″ plus spurs someday blowing past that mark – Good Luck

Here’s some info from a good source.

http://www.nwtf.org/conservation/bulletins/bulletin_18.pdf

http://www.nwtf.org/tips_adventures/tips.php?id=289

Thanks for posting that. The beards though can be way off. Beard rot, electric fences ,snow. The best way will be going by the spurs unless broken off. A few years ago finally got to see a double spur bird. Friend at work shot.

Great discussion! There’s been quite a few studies on turkey spur length, and it remains the best determinant of age amongst wild turkeys, no matter which subspecies. Noted turkey biologist Lovett Williams has done quite a bit of work on this, but it’s mostly with Osceola’s from his home state of Florida.

Most of the birds I kill or have killed over the years are also in the 7/8 – 1″ spur mark, for a few simple reasons. First and foremost, the population structure in any wild game species typically has less members at the far right hand side of the curve. In other words, there’s simply fewer gobblers in the woods 4 years and older compared to 2 – 3 year toms. Moreover, 2 year old all-star birds are the ones most likely to come running to calling and/or decoy setups. As hunters continue to kill off the 2 year olds, older birds become educated to hunting, calling, decoys, and just plain old movement and/or disturbances in the woods. Old dominant flock hens will see this too, and learn, making the older toms even harder to kill.

I’ve hunted a number of old gobblers as determined by winter scouting and spotting scope verification of their spurs, which in my mind is the only true way to “field-judge” your tom. One in particular had hooks so long I kept mistaking them for the back toe on his foot. On most occasions, these birds gobble less, avoid aggressive behavior in both calling and other turkeys, and simply will come less of a distance to a call. My brother actually got a shot off on this bird (missed), and it was after 3 days of hunting him, doing something different off the roost each day. Some days this bird in particular would simply pretend he wasn’t part of the flock and do his own thing completely. He lived another winter, then never saw him again the following spring.

Older birds aren’t always dominant either, I’ve seen many occasions where a younger and bigger bodied tom would chase off the older one, even jakes that’ll do the same thing.

The best part about turkeys to me? It doesn’t matter. Field judging a tom is extremely difficult, and unless you’ve got a spotting scope with a wide open field view and low brush/grass, I don’t buy people “passing” on toms for a “bigger” one. Most often it’s a figment of their imagination. This makes any longbeard a trophy for me, and takes away much of the elitism you see with the antler-quest of so many other game species. Turkey hunting is a wonderful sport, and I wouldn’t worry about not getting into older birds, especially if the birds you’ve been taking have been putting on a show and making for an enjoyable hunt!!!

Joel