How do you age a bird????

F

flattail395

New member
My first bird was a jake so I figure last years young.The second bird was a 20lb.10 and a quarter inch beard,with 1 and a quarter inch spurs.One guy told me it was a 2 year old and another told me 3 or 4 year old bird.Is there any way of ageing them?Also how do you score a turkey?
 
Spur length is the best indicator of age when it comes to turkeys. Beard length is almost meaningless.

A jake is a juvenile bird (as seen by the fan and primaries or a 1 year old or less.

2 year old birds usually have 3/4 inch spurs or in the neighborhood. 1 inch spurs would be 3 years and 1 1/4 or more would be 4 years or older.
This kind of rule of thumb for Easterns at least, but I'm sure there are exceptions.

Gobblers don't typically live longer than 5 years in the wild, although I know of at least one banded bird that was killed 6 years after he was released (as part of a re-stocking effort)

The National Wild Turkey Federation has a scoring process and keeps records. How to Score Your Turkey.
 
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i think we post at the same time yellow hammer /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
you can tell he is a Jake by the tail the middle feathers
the center 4 of them are longer then the rest.
but the beard may mislead ya they have a tendency to brake or freeze of short. the spurs may tell you if he is older then 1 1/2 buy if they are more then a bump on his leg at all .but if in a rocky habitate they may were them down also. how much they way depends on there location and how good the food is there.

I hope that a this little bit helps that all i can help with maybe keekee can help he is pretty knowledgeable when it comes to turkeys .
tell you the truth i heard he calls so good may be he can ask one next time he is out. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
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The "jake fan" may not have just 4 feathers that are longer. Depending on when they hatched and when they are seen (killed) they may have replaced more or less feathers. I have seen jakes that had almost full fans. The longer feathers are the newest (adult) feathers and as he gets older he replaces more. A month or so in age may mean the difference in 4 or 5 replaced adult feathers or or almost a complete set.

Aging by Tail Feathers , Spur Length , and Beard Length
 
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"I hope that a this little bit helps that all i can help with maybe keekee can help he is pretty knowledgeable when it comes to turkeys .
tell you the truth i heard he calls so good may be he can ask one next time he is out."

LOL....Now thats funny!!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

You all got it nailed pretty good if you ask me. I go by spur lght myself. Most 2 year old birds here have around 3/4" spurs, 3 year old birds or better seem to be over an inch. The weather gets so bad here the freeze alot of there beard off, ice gets in the beard and it breaks off. I have killed birds with 1 1/4" spurs and 8" beards in the past.


Brent
 
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that’s some good info yellowhammer.
I really don't know a lot about turkey other then talking to them.

I can say this you hunt in a big city and you will not believe some of the goofy thing you see on turkeys
I have had hunters and my self kill some crazy looking turkey.

I think that they are lock in a area and they are at the point that they are inbreeding .
like a 25lb tom with a 5 '' beard that looks like a 6'' paint brush. or crazy spurs I seen last week a tom a guy killed that had one 1'' and one that was 1 7/8. with a thin 9’’bear like only 12 or so stands in the beard

thanks for the info I know more know
 
the short beards are mostly a result of a kind of fungus that we call beard rot, it leaves the tips blond where the fungus set in and the beard broke off. Have killed a couple with it that hadn't broke they're beards off yet
All this info is about as close as you could get with a few exceptions in certain areas. A few turkeys coming from a couple different places around here may not have spurs, just the bumpy scale on the leg, when its a 22# bird with a 10.5" paintbrush its not a jake. and I did shoot a jake once with a full fan, came in at dawn in full strut saw a full fan so didn't even look at the beard. the spur length age system only works if the spurs are pointed, in real rocky habitat lots of gobblers wear or break them off.
RR
 


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