Gobbler Age

[Treerooster]

I forgot to mention I have taken a gobbler a broken spur. I do not know how he did it but it was broken off. Plus have a few that have chiped off places near the tip of their spurs. I did not know what it would take to chip or break a spur but something did. My guess would be fighting. But could have been from hard object hitting them. Or the turkey hitting them on something hard.

Here is broken spur from a bird a buddy of mine killed. Its a Rio. That had to hurt...eh? I have a few spurs with broken tips also but that is an unusual bird and I don't see a bunch of broken tips (like from rocks) from one specific area.

[Treerooster]

I think the Merriams is a whole different critter genetically.. Even beard length on Merriams tend to suffer.. Some would attribute that to snow but Easterns in high snowfall areas such as MI, WI, NY etc sport 10+ inch beards routinely..

Yes I agree but there are Merriams with relatively sharp spurs and the genetics vary within the Merriams subspecies. The bases of Merriams beards (and Rios too) are also generally smaller than Easterns and their beards are of course, thinner.

Here is a bunch of Merriams spurs. All taken from similar Ponderosa Pine habitat, but different regions (CO, MT, WY, NE, & SD).

Another thing I have noticed.. The birds I have killed and handled with 1.5 or better tend to have less circumference or mass to the spurs and most start somewhat small and come to a razor point.. Whereas on the other hand most of the spurs I have in the 1 1/4 range tend to be fatter with less hook and less sharpness at the point.. Do some turkeys spur production production go more to the circumference and thus plateau at the 1 1/4 range whereas some birds have longer narrower spurs, thus the longer spurs?

You mentioned this earlier in this post and I was looking at my spurs. I have them seperated as to Easterns, Rios, and Merriams (at least as best as I can because there are some hybrids in there) and there does seem to be a correlation between the mass of a spur and how dull or sharp it is, and through all the subspeceis.

Nutrition could also be a factor in merriams beard and spur production as well..

OH NO!! I can see the new turkey feed now...Vita-Spur...specially formulated to grow those spurs bigger and faster.

[ncturkey]

The one i had kust had about 1/4" or so broken off. I will take a picture of my broken spur. The one you had is the worse. I have never ever seen the whole spur broken off. That really had to hurt.

I forgot to mention I have taken a gobbler a broken spur. I do not know how he did it but it was broken off. Plus have a few that have chiped off places near the tip of their spurs. I did not know what it would take to chip or break a spur but something did. My guess would be fighting. But could have been from hard object hitting them. Or the turkey hitting them on something hard.

Here is broken spur from a bird a buddy of mine killed. Its a Rio. That had to hurt...eh? I have a few spurs with broken tips also but that is an unusual bird and I don't see a bunch of broken tips (like from rocks) from one specific area.

[Hoobilly]

I wonder if it hurts a turkey like it hurts us to lose a nail????