Is there any way to tell the age of a turkey by outside examination? I know beard length is accurate, I always heard the longer the spurs the older the bird but Im thinking that may not be accurate either.

Actually neither one is accurate. Both are a guess unless it’s the obvious like a Jake.

You can send the jaw off to a biologist and they can age them.

^^^^^. Ummmmm......Turkeys don't have teeth.....here's your sign!

Spur length is a decent ball park but not exact. I think the old timers had it pretty close on spur length for guessing age. And beard will never ever-ever-ever tell you jack crap about age!!!!!

Some of the info i got on tagged jakes that were recovered 5years later sounded about right. Not exact - but close

Nothing is truly consistent on turkeys. You can accurately age jakes, two year olds and then 3+. Even distinctions between 2 and 3+ can get tricky. There’s been quite a few older birds killed that had spurs no longer than the day they were captured years prior, although most do follow our rules we’ve established, some don’t. Same for deer. Tooth wear aging is not very accurate, and it’s only as accurate within the framework as the person looking at the teeth.

Spurs if anything IMO

I killed a red phase bird years ago. Beard was a little over 11 inches and spurs weren’t 3/4 inch.

🙆

Size of his head . A five year old has a big head , be the size of the side of your balled up fist. But I can't tell you how old any turkey is . I can give a guess

Yeah the teeth wear is a location location location thing .

Look at his tooth wear

Cut his leg in half and count the rings.

Number of hairs in his beard, is the way the old schoolers taught me. Count hairs and Divide by 10