Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk ALTurkey Talk -- Beards and Spurs My buddy killed a jake?

Friend of mine was telling me he killed a jake, then a few days later we got to talking about it again. He said it was 6 of them, never gobbled. His turkey had a 4 1/2” beard, but it had 1” spurs. I’ve never saw a jake with spurs, other than little knots. What did he kill? Adult gobbler or jake? He said after he shot, the other birds started fighting? I asked if his bird had a full fan, I don’t think he even checked or took a pic.

I killed one a lot like that in 2020. 1 inch spurs, 3-4 inch beard and a full fan. Was not a jake. Beard rot caused the short beard.

Fan tells the tale whether it’s a Jake or not. I’ve never seen a young turkey with good spurs either.
I’ve killed several with beard rot, usually brown on ends.

Killed one once that had over an inch spurs and zero beard. I saw him walking and a crow flew over and cawed, he gobbled.

He killed a short bearded tom. Good spurs=tom gobbler

I killed one last year in Montana that had a big gobble, a full fan, a medium beard, but not a hint of a spur. Not even a bump. Being conscious of gobbling Jake’s out there, I made sure he was a tom turkey before I pulled the trigger, but there was a little head scratching going on when I first saw those slick legs. lol.

Not a Jake.

i killed a gobbler several years back that had a long beard, full fan, strong gobble & NO SPURS
up until that point, i never knew how much i liked spurs - that slick-legged joker broke my heart 🤦🏻‍♂️😩

Killed a few of those.

I called in a mature bird with long spurs and a full fan in TX with a 3/8” beard. He didn’t have beard rot or anything wrong. Just a really short thin beard. It was 3/8” long and 1/4” wide.

Kinda like this????

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I killed a gobbler with a full fan and no spurs AND a Jake with 1" spurs and a staggered fan in the same year back in the 90's. The fan tells the story.

The wing coverts as well. They are a good way to check a bird from the side that you cant see the fan

Osceola I killed last year had 1.25” spurs, full fan and a beard like what Stony posted, maybe 1-2”.

Either beard rot, or been feeding in a smoldering clear-cut. I've killed both. Fan tells the truth.

Yeah your buddy killed a gobbler with beard rot. Jake’s aren’t going to have 1 inch spurs. Most two year olds don’t have 1 inch spurs.


Years ago I was in Nebraska with another member from here. We got on a bird and had to make a move on him using a terrain feature. There was a couple of mule deer trails that split as we were going up the hill and I went right and he went left. When I broke the top of the hill to peek over I had walked right up on him and he was like 3 feet from me. He immediately turned his back to me and started fast walking away. I raised my gun and my buddy yelled “Jake”. I immediately unshouldered the gun and looked at the turkey and thought “there’s no way”. I shouldered my gun again and he starts yelling “no shooter” again. I pulled the trigger. I walked out to the bird and my buddy walked up and expressed disbelief that I’d blow a tag on a jake. I rolled him over and he had a 3 inch beard that was attached to a 24 lb body that sported the prettiest set of 1 5/8 hooks you ever laid eyes on.

He asked me how I knew and I told him there was no way a jake was that big with a head as big as a softball.

I took this from Tennessee’s TWRA website, hope the pic shows up. [ima]https://[/img]

On your Alabama Game Check Harvest Report, you'll notice that when you have to check whether it's a Jake or an Adult, it will use the fan as sole criterion. If the tail feathers are of an even length, then it's an adult. If the center line tail feathers are longer than the outside tail feathers, then it's a Jake. Pretty simple. I'd say your buddy shot an Adult, and I base that on spur length since he did not check tail feathers apparently.

FYI, no such thing as beard rot (or the beard being burned off (their feet would stop them from walking there). This is what folks think is beard rot described by Chamberlain
"Beards are specialized feathers that grow continuously, and they’re dark colored because of melanin, which is the most common pigment in birds. Melanin is produced through interactions between amino acids released from nutrients in foods that turkeys eat and enzymes in the skin. When melanin production is disrupted because the tom has a nutritional deficiency, or has been ill or injured, the growing beard gets a rusty colored stripe in it. Typically, the bird recovers from the issue that caused the melanin disruption, and he starts producing melanin at normal levels again – so the new growth is once again black. However, the section of the beard that is rusty colored is brittle and often breaks – almost looking like it was cut – which is perhaps what causes folks to think the beard is rotting. But alas, there is no such thing as beard rot! The take home is a simple lack of melanin production is the root cause for one of the most common misunderstandings in the wild turkey world"

Well, since my buddy didn’t take a pic of the turkeys fan, I guess we’ll never know! My bet is still a jake, simply because it was 6 of them in the bunch. He actually missed him the first shot, and he didn’t even fly or run. Robinhedd

I'm going to have to disagree with you, there isn't a jake alive with 1 inch spurs. Like I said earlier.... most 2 year olds don't eclipse the 1 inch mark unless they were an early hatch. I've also seen single gobblers run with droves of jakes a pile of times. I once saw one longbeard running with 37 jakes out West years ago.