Stud bird!!

DIL got it done this afternoon with a stud bird. 24lbs 11.5” & 8.75” beards, and 1.5” matching spurs! Shot in cover at all of 10yds, lol. Surprisingly she didn’t blow the head off. Yeah, it’s at the taxidermist now.

That’s a dandy.
Spurs are my gauge of a really exceptional gobbler.
Not many hit 1 1/2” plus.

Sweet deal sounds like a winner

That is a sho' nuff hoss. My personal best was only 20/11/1.5 and was the largest I've ever seen come off our place.

nice where's the pic,?

Congrats

I consider weight as well. Over the years we've tallied up weights on what comes off the homeplace and the average gobbler weight is 14lbs.

Picture would be great

Sounds like a Nice old bird

Would love to post pics but since I got this new phone all my pics are too large to post. Used to get a size option when downloading, now I don’t. Anyone have a work around?

Pull the picture up on your phone, then take a screenshot of it. Screenshots are usually always small enough to post.

Or you can email it to yourself and choose a smaller file size

Load it to a private photo gallery on FB then download that copy. Resizing done.

Screenshot the photo then it’ll work. I have to do that.

Nice bird

Pull the picture up clip a tiny edge off it and it will upload.


Congrats on the bird!!

Well, I was able to post to another site after cropping, but now instead of telling me the file is too large the little screen just goes black.

Awesome bird, congrats to her!

would score high in any turkey competion


weight+(beard lengthx2)+(combined spur lengthx10)

Congratulations to her! I shot a 25# triple bearded bird that I wish I had known better to register but, oh well. He is on the wall now!

He will be on the wall as well. We don’t register deer or turkeys on these private properties. My biggest on that property was 22lbs. Great habitat produced great weights and doesn’t antlers.

Way to go for her!!

Heck yeah! Congrats to her!

Meh. Spurs vary based on terrain. All depends on that. I like to judge them on weight. Heavy bird means good flock health.

Good for her … that’s a biggin

lol
Okay

Never bought into the spurs based on terrain argument. Sorta goes with bucks not growing large antlers. If they all live long enough (barring injury) they grow spurs and antlers. I think some species just don’t grow large spurs. Take Merriam’s or Gould’s…they are just stubby spurs for the most part. I guess that’s where the argument comes because they’re considered “mountain” birds. But, there’s mountains in the Eastern’s range as well and they still grow some impressive spurs. Weight down here is dependent on beginning of season vs end of season. I’ve killed a 22# bird opening day and a 14# bird the day before season ended off the same property the same year. That poor bird didn’t have a breast feather on his chest, lol.

Clay, I’ve killed 1 Eastern with 1.5” spurs and believe it or not, a Texas Rio with 1.5” spurs. This is only the 3rd bird I’ve seen up close with those measurements. I’ve killed an Osceola with 1 3/8” spurs. I was with a buddy in Arizona when he killed a Merriam with 1 3/8” spurs too. The very first thing I look for after killing one are those spurs to let me know how old he is.

Agreed.
It’s all about the spur for me.
Don’t get me wrong. Any adult gobbler is getting torched. But I as well check the spur first.
My biggest spur was a Texas Rio as well. 1 5/8”.
A legitimate 1 3/4” spur is as rare as a 200” whitetail.

I have a buddy who killed a Merriams in SD with 1.5” spurs.

I’m with you guys, would rather kill a bird with long spurs than a long beard or heavy weight. Some of the places we hunt, heavy just means they been at the neighbors bird feeder all month.

Don’t hunt much anymore, turkeys don’t gobble like good ole days and way too many people hunting now vs 30 years ago. Most birds under 19# here, got some pushing 20. Spurs was always the gauge on boss bird. 1 1/2” spurs was fairly common, few 1 3/4”, and longest was 1 7/8”. The old man got one that had 2”+ spurs.