The longest beard was
10 inches
and all 13 beards added up to a combined length of 78.9375 inches. The tom weighed 22 pounds and had a . 9735 spur on one leg and a 1-inch spur on the other, making it the third highest-scoring turkey in the NWTF record system.
How long can a turkey beard get?
Year-old males have beards up to about five inches long, while toms three or more years old
can have beards that are 10 inches or longer
. Rarely, a tom will have one primary beard and one or two smaller beards just above it. About 5-10 percent of female turkeys may also sport short, thin beards.
What is the biggest turkey ever killed?
Lyon, Ky. — The National Wild Turkey Federation has certified the largest turkey killed on record. The gobbler,
37.6 pounds
, was shot with a firearm by David Guess of Lyon County, Kentucky, on April 21. The previous record turkey, 37.1 pounds, was killed in 2002 in Oregon.
How long do wild turkeys beards grow?
Beard Length
Beards begin growing when turkeys are about 5 months old, and keep growing
4 to 5 inches annually
. According to Turkey & Turkey Hunting magazine, a 2-year-old gobbler’s beard usually measures 8 to 10 inches. When it’s 3 years old, a gobbler’s beard will have grown about 14 inches.
Is a 10 inch beard on a turkey good?
Turkey Beards
As a general rule, jakes will have short beards (about 2 to 3 inches in length), while the
tom turkey beard can be up to 10 inches or more
(they don’t call them longbeards for nothing). Sometimes toms even get multiple beards, which can be another good sign of maturity.
What is the heaviest turkey in the world?
The heaviest turkey in the world was
an 86-pound bird named Tyson
. Tyson belonged to Philip Cook of Leacroft Turkeys Limited in Peterborough, UK. The bird won the last annual heaviest turkey competition held in London on December 12, 1989, and was auctioned for charity for £4,400 (equal to $6,692 in 1989).
What is the heaviest wild turkey in the world?
NWTF World Record for Heaviest Turkey
David Cody Guess of Lyon County, Kentucky, already had a huge 28-pound bird to his credit, when he killed a much bigger bird in 2015 on his family farm. The gobbler weighed an astonishing
37.6 pounds
, and is the heaviest ever recorded.
Do turkeys regrow their beards?
The bodies of wild turkeys are covered with 5,000 to 6,000 feathers. … Unlike the rest of the body feathers which undergo 5 molts throughout an eastern’s lifetime,
the beard does not molt
. It becomes visible when the turkey is 6-7 months of age, and it continues to grow throughout their lifetime.
What does a trophy turkey score?
The minimum score for a Trophy Turkey Award
is 65
. KDWPT keeps Top 20 lists in two categories: typical and nontypical. Birds with multiple beards would fall under the nontypical category.
Can a turkey have 3 beards?
Beard Facts
Turkey beards usually grow to 9 inches long, although according to the National Wild Turkey Foundation, the longest beard ever recorded was 18 inches. Their beards grow 3 to 5 inches a year.
Turkeys can have multiple beards
.
How old is a turkey with 1 inch spurs?
| Spur Length Age | 0′′ to 1/2′′ 1 year or a jake | 1/2′′ to 7/8′′ 2 years | 7/8′ to 1′′ 3 years | 1 ” and above 4 plus years |
|---|
What causes turkey beard rot?
Have you seen a gobbler with ‘beard rot? ‘ It is actually
a vitamin deficiency in the turkey’s diet
that causes the follicles to become rust colored, brittle and fall off.
How old is a turkey with a 7 inch beard?
As biology tells us, the beard starts to grow when the young male turkey (or in some cases, female) is roughly five months old. That bird will add five inches annually on average. And a legal fall gobbler
roughly 1.5 years old
will often have a 6- to 7-inch beard.
Can turkeys smell?
Smell. “Smells are interpreted by the olfactory lobes in the forepart of the brain,” Dickson said. “These lobes are small in the turkey and probably indicate
a poorly developed sense of smell
.” Eriksen adds, “The olfactory sense in most birds, including the wild turkey, is poorly developed.
