How do you score a turkey?

[Shelbyhunter]

Any tips?????

[GSP]

Any tips?????

I will give them a 9.9! :D


I think you take the (Length of spurs x 10) + (Length of Beard x 2) + Weight

[SixPack07]

Do you go down to 8th's of an inch? And is it only a non-typical if it has more then 1 beard, or are there other ways it can be non-typical?

[GSP]

Do you go down to 8th's of an inch? And is it only a non-typical if it has more then 1 beard, or are there other ways it can be non-typical?

They go down to 1/16".
Both spurs are combined length.
The non-typicals are multi-beard.

Shelby, here is NWTF's scoring system calculator.
http://www.nwtf.org/all_about_turkeys/turkey_score.html

[Shelbyhunter]

thanks for the help. I scored my bird at 68.
26lbs 15 oz
1 inch spurs
10.5 inch beard.

pretty good for my first one....

[GSP]

thanks for the help. I scored my bird at 68.
26lbs 15 oz
1 inch spurs
10.5 inch beard.

pretty good for my first one....
T'aint bad! :)
I would guess you have a 3 year old bird. Just my opinion, I think old birds 4+ weigh less than the 2-3 year old birds.
Again, just my opinion, I think the older birds wear off a lot of weight running off younger birds, doing their strutting and maintaining their domain.

Good bird you got there Shelby.

[skin_dog1]

I think a bird with multiple spurs would also be considered a nontyp. GSP, I believe 4 y/o will hold weight pretty good. My big bird last year had an 1 5/16 spur and weighed 26.26 lbs and 10.5" beard. I believe he barely broke into the 70 region because of one spur busted off to 1". I'm pretty sure he would've been 4 1/2+. I'm purty proud!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v34/skin_dog1/1st_eastern2.jpg

[SixPack07]

I'll have to recheck the measurements and stuff, but the one I got two years ago had 1 1/2" and 1 3/8" spurs, 9 1/2 inch beard, and weighed just under 25 pounds. Something like that. His wing feathers were really wore down. I don't know if that meant he was real old, or if he had just been doing a lot of drumming and strutting that spring or what. Kind of seemed like an old bird, but I haven't had the chance to see too many up close either.

[MammothCaveHunter]

Hey Dave, awesome pic of you and your lil girl.

Yes, you multiply spur lengths by 10 (measure each spur, not just longest) You double the length of all beards, and you add the weight. A bird is considered Atypical (nontypical) if it has either multiple beards or multiple spurs. All of this is on a 1/8'' scale.

Hey sixpack, your bird would score 72.75 if it weighed an even 25 pounds.
13.75 spur
15.00 spur
19.00 beard
25.00 lbs

72.75 score
BIG BIRD

[SixPack07]

So is 70 kind of the mark of it being a mature bird? I know everyone probably has a different opinion, just like what a score for a mature buck would be, but I guess I was just wondering what is considered big when looking at the score.

[GSP]

I think a bird with multiple spurs would also be considered a nontyp. GSP, I believe 4 y/o will hold weight pretty good. My big bird last year had an 1 5/16 spur and weighed 26.26 lbs and 10.5" beard. I believe he barely broke into the 70 region because of one spur busted off to 1". I'm pretty sure he would've been 4 1/2+. I'm purty proud
Your right, I wasn't thinking about the multi-spurs.
You maybe right on the 4 year olds too. I don't know. That is the hard part about turkeys, there really isn't a "for sure" way of aging them.
What I have seen (and this is only 6-7 birds that fall in this catagory) is that birds with over 1 3/8" spurs usually weigh less than the 7/8", 2 year olds.
I don't know at what age, but it seems that birds peak on weight and then start dropping off.

You have a good looking bird there and one beautiful little girl. Birdman was telling me that he ran into y'all at the Strader show. He was saying she had the prettiest blue eyes. No doubt she takes after mom? :D

[Mount-N-Man]

Any bird with a beard over 8" is a mature bird in my book. Almost all 2 year old birds will have a beard that big or bigger. I have taken 5 mature toms and they all have had 10" - 10 1/2" beards. You age them by the spurs. A bird with 1" spurs would be a 2 year old, 1 1/4" - 1 3/8" spurs would probably be 3 years old and anything over 1 1/2" spurs would be 4 or older. I took 1 bird with 1 5/8" spurs and figured him to be 4 years old, He had a 10 1/2" beard and weighed 24 1/2 lbs.

[skin_dog1]

Everybody comments on her eyes, and ofcourse she takes after mommy! I'm gonna have my hands full in about 10 years!Your right, I wasn't thinking about the multi-spurs.
You maybe right on the 4 year olds too. I don't know. That is the hard part about turkeys, there really isn't a "for sure" way of aging them.
What I have seen (and this is only 6-7 birds that fall in this catagory) is that birds with over 1 3/8" spurs usually weigh less than the 7/8", 2 year olds.
I don't know at what age, but it seems that birds peak on weight and then start dropping off.

You have a good looking bird there and one beautiful little girl. Birdman was telling me that he ran into y'all at the Strader show. He was saying she had the prettiest blue eyes. No doubt she takes after mom? :D

[SixPack07]

Skin_dog, keep her busy hunting all the time, that way she won't have time for boys when that time comes. Or just lock her in the basement. Not sure what route I will go when I have one to worry about.

[Turkeyhunter5]

well if i scored mine correctly it was 74.25

spurrs- both 1 3/8
beard- 10 3/8
weight-26

[Gobblergetter2.1]

In my opinion, a 4 year old bird could wiegh more than a 2 year old, or a 2 year old could weigh more than a 4 year old. It just depends on how active he is and how much he eats. Around here, usually, the older birds are bigger. Like the 30lb+ bird i saw. I know he had to be at lease 4 because we had been hunting him for 2 years when i saw him. He has to be at least 6 by now because that was 2 years ago... I wish he would have walked 20 yards closer to me:D

[P. Beyer]

If it Hammers back at me,...Comes in with a full fan. Well it scores high in my book.