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Spur length?

JAY B

JAY B

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 9, 2007
Messages
2,195
Location
Meigs Co.
Can you really age a bird by the length of the spurs or is that myth? If its true how old would a bird with 7/8" spurs be? How about 3/4"? Thanks!
 
spur length, just like weight and beard length, are affected by a variety of things.

Generally can expect a 1 yr. old to have about 1/2 inch, 2 yr. old to have about 3/4 inch and 3 yr. old to have about 1 inch.

However, there was a bird netted and banded on Catoosa as an adult, moved to Middle Tenn. and released. Harvested 10 years later and had 1 inch spurs.
 
from all that i have studied and read you CAN age them by spur length but it is not absolute. The spur length can be effected by a variety of things and will only age the bird to a certain point (generally 4 years old)

it is just the best way to actually field age a bird.
 
10 years! Blows my 1,2,3,4(maybe) and dead all to h...
Also, every jake(1 year) that I have ever killed sported about 1/4 nubs. I suppose that 1/2 inchers would be classed as "super jakes". lol
 
4onaside said:
10 years! Blows my 1,2,3,4(maybe) and dead all to h...
Click to expand...

No, not really. Spurs do break off and regrow. No telling how many times that 10+ year old bird broke and regrew spurs. I'd say there is no bird alive that sports spurs suitable (according to age) to a 10 year old bird.

Again, the rules of spur length/age are "general rule". There can be exceptions.
 
GOHUNT said:
4onaside said:
10 years! Blows my 1,2,3,4(maybe) and dead all to h...
Click to expand...

No, not really. Spurs do break off and regrow. No telling how many times that 10+ year old bird broke and regrew spurs. I'd say there is no bird alive that sports spurs suitable (according to age) to a 10 year old bird.

Again, the rules of spur length/age are "general rule". There can be exceptions.
Click to expand...
I was refering to my long time belief that the normal life span of a wild gobbler would top out at about 4 years. I know there are exceptions to every rule, and the Catoosa bird, I would think, would be the exception of all exceptions. lol
 
Spurs are the only way to generally tell how old a bird is, but IMO once a bird surpasses 3 years old, it becomes a wash. I killed a bird last year in the mtns hear, that had 1.5" spurs, hooked as anything in this world but filed down considerably from rock hopping over the years. I bet $$ if he lived over sand or on flat ground he would have pushed the 1.75"-2" threshold which is extremely uncommon anywhere in the country.

I think gobblers reaching 5 is not uncommon, however after that the odds are not in their favor.

I am always amazed how each year I kill maybe one 2 year old bird here, the rest are very mature 3+ year old birds. While further south GA,Miss, Bama most if not all birds I kill are two year olds. The only reason I can think of is that where I hunt down south zero jakes are harvested on the land I hunt, while here I hunt public land and most jakes must get whacked each year. Or there are very few birds which get harvested and thus the only dominant birds which are willing to gobble, shut all the two year olds up and keep them from being players. Either scenario is possible.

I would like to see the 1" spurs off of a ten year old bird, wonder how thick they were and how filed down they were.
 
4onaside said:
10 years! Blows my 1,2,3,4(maybe) and dead all to h...
Also, every jake(1 year) that I have ever killed sported about 1/4 nubs. I suppose that 1/2 inchers would be classed as "super jakes". lol
Click to expand...
Once again, it took only days(in this case two) to prove me wrong. The jake I killed this morning had 1/2" spurs(I still would call them nubs due to the shape). I now have 1,2,3 and 4 year old examples from birds that I have killed the past two seasons. And since they all came off the same property, I think most would agree with my age assessment.
 
If ya'll look in the TWRA Reg Book, it list's the spur lengths and ages for birds.... Here is what it says:

Age: Spur Length:

1 year : 1/2" or less
2 years : 1/2" - 7/8"
3 years : 7/8" - 1"
4+ years : 1"+


I find this info pretty accurate when using my harvested birds to judge. Spurs do get broke and environment can/will affect spur length......
 
Grizzly Johnson said:
If ya'll look in the TWRA Reg Book, it list's the spur lengths and ages for birds.... Here is what it says:

Age: Spur Length:

1 year : 1/2" or less
2 years : 1/2" - 7/8"
3 years : 7/8" - 1"
4+ years : 1"+


I find this info pretty accurate when using my harvested birds to judge. Spurs do get broke and environment can/will affect spur length......
Click to expand...
Factor in sharpness and shape with those lengths and IMO it becomes an extremely effective way of aging birds, or as someone pointed out, the only practical way to accurately age one.
 
According to the guy on the outdoor radio show this morning very few burds that have been radio tagged live after their 3rd year due to predators and other natural causes.
 
big B said:
According to the guy on the outdoor radio show this morning very few burds that have been radio tagged live after their 3rd year due to predators and other natural causes.
Click to expand...

Most biologists would disagree with that guy. Everything I've read indicates very, very few adult birds are lost to predation. Mortality is almost exclusively related to hunting.

Now I would agree that in many places in TN birds rarely live past 3 years of age due to hunting pressure.
 
I have killed mature Gobblers myself with 1 and even both spurs broke off short and even completely missing! I wonder long it takes for them to grow back. I also saw a pair of 2 1/2" spurs off an old crippled hermit Gobbler that a friend killed. It took him a few years to kill this bird and he finally bushwacked him, as he wouldnt ever come all the way in to a call. He had a bum leg and very visible limp, the spurs were almost unbelievable to look at.
 
RUGER said:
Interesting.

BigAl killed one at LBL a few years ago with 2" hooks.
That is amazing to me.
Click to expand...
Think you could post a pic of these if you have one! Thats some huge spurs!
 

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