The trophy turkey....

D

double gun

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Turkey hunters, please explain to me (a guy who has never hunted turkey) what you look for in a trophy bird. Is it the weight of the bird? Beard length? Spurs? Perhaps a combo?

Here in Alberta turkeys are a special license draws and it takes quite a few years to be drawn. I'm pretty much ready to draw my tag and was considering going for it next year, but was wondering what "trophy" feature(s) to look for in a bird.
 
Any mature Tom will have a long beard roughly 8 to 10 inches and Spurs and inch in length or longer. That would be a trophy multiple beards add to it
 
As Dutch said. But like all hunting, you have decisions to make.
Big beards sometimes wear down as the beard rubs on the ground.
You will be looking at the big body size first, beard and then spur and tail feather display if you can see them.
And of course as the sun sets on your season, you need to decide what is important to you.
 
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If you have never hunted turkeys, a jake is a "trophy." But any mature tom is a dandy harvest. Look for a hanging beard of 8"+, and a full even fan with consistent colour... spurs are generally a "measure when they are down" thing... when you have seen a few birds, you can tell a large bodied bird from an average bird... but starting out stick with the beard and fan cues...
 
As Hoyt said, any first bird is a trophy! There are a couple of methods to calculate what a turkey scores. Its basically based on weight, spur length and beard length.

http://www.nwtf.org/hunt/records/score

I would judge a bird in the field using one main criteria...how much meat will it put in the plate. But for trophy purposes, if it has a long beard, great. Im more interested in what the tail fan will look like mounted on a wall and if it had long spurs. But as mentioned, often times the spurs dont get factored in until a trigger has been pulled. Once I start chasing my second bird, I will likely target a jake because I need a tail for my strutter decoy
 
This was my bird of a lifetime...I doubt I’ll harvest anything near the size it again. By far the biggest in weight, spur length and tail size. Of course, tail size isnt factored in the scoring calculator, but it sure does look great on the wall. This bird scored an 81 on the calculator above

Vj3YM2R.jpg
 
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Thanks gentlemen. This is likely a one time deal for me here in Alberta - the draw is long and they just don’t have the appeal the other species do for me. However I would like to hunt all Alberta has to offer at least once and that’s the reason for the thread.

Do jakes have a beard and spurs? Or do those develop later on? What’s the most obvious difference between a Jake and a Tom? When I watch turkey hunting videos they all look the same to me. Lol.
 
double gun said:
Thanks gentlemen. This is likely a one time deal for me here in Alberta - the draw is long and they just don’t have the appeal the other species do for me. However I would like to hunt all Alberta has to offer at least once and that’s the reason for the thread.

Do jakes have a beard and spurs? Or do those develop later on? What’s the most obvious difference between a Jake and a Tom? When I watch turkey hunting videos they all look the same to me. Lol.
Click to expand...

Jakes generally will have a stubby beard about 2-3" long and usually sticking straight out... but the quickest identifier is that the center tail feathers are usually a different length than the outside tail feathers... usually they will be longer in the center on a jake, but sometimes shorter... if the fan is full and even, it is at least a two year old bird. Generally, a hanging beard of 5" or more will be a two plus year old bird 99% of the time. Jakes usually do not have spurs, but they may have bumps.
 
I hunted in the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1990 and Alberta in 1993. No success. Never hunted again until 2017 when I harvested a jake in southern BC. Yes, a jake is a trophy! I bought the Bourbon in 1990 and never cracked it until 2017 when I shot my bird. Still tasted like ####!
Personally I think AB opens their turkey season too late in the year.

DSCF2150 by Rob Grainger, on Flickr

IMG_0991 by Rob Grainger, on Flickr

IMG_0992 by Rob Grainger, on Flickr
 
Spur length is the only indicator of age. Longer the spurs the older the bird the harder they are to get. Another trophy effect is Multi beards and someone that gets one of them has a hard to get birds as well. Problem is its all Luck because most times you have no idea what you have shot until you walk up and check. Any bird and a Adult bird is a Prize.

Here's a couple I call trophies and lucky to get

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