Big turkeys (to you)

[elknturkey]

Full fan, full wing patch, full gobble and visible beard is game on. A big turkey in my parts is anything over 21 lbs, or 1 1/8" or better spurs. Most I run across are 18-21 lbs, and 7/8" - 1 1/8", or thereabouts.

Pretty much spot on here. 21lb is big. My biggest 3 were all 23.xx lb and they were all killed the same year at the start of the season. Only thing I could think of was the cicadas were super thick the previous year.

Mtn birds rarely ever have good spurs. 1 1/4 is very special. My largest mountain bird is 1 3/8. I've had the opportunity to hunt farms about a dozen times. First time I went I killed 1 that had 1 9/16 spurs. Prob will always be my biggest. Tagged along twice last year and both were 1 1/2. One was the guys first bird. 2 from last year

 

[Newt]

^^^^^^^ that's what I consider big lol like everyone else if he's a full fanned longbeard that plays the game I don't really care but I do love some big sharp spurs like the ones above!!

 

[BackwoodsBoy]

I've been so blessed in my turkey career to kill some true monsters, and that's all about spurs. Nothing else matters. Beards are thick, beards are thin, beards are super long and some are shorter none of that tells a birds age. Weight to me matters even less, as I've killed big fat two year olds and super thin 4+ year olds.

I honestly don't care anything about stats though. If a bird plays the game I want it to play it is a trophy in my eyes.

Sure it's cool to roll,one over and see 1.5" daggers, but I've gotten just as much if not more satisfaction killing a 2 year old after a 5 hour duel.

In some ways turkeys are all trophies each one. They're so cool, unique and insane. They're not deer and gauging them on stats cheapens the sport imo. When hunted the traditional way it's so personal, so intimate to literally engage in a conversation with a wild animal and ultimately dupe him into coming to you. That makes them all trophies, even jakes when taken with a call and a gun

Excellent post.

Can't add anything or say anything else.