Was able to get out this morning and got to my place expecting to hear our boss bird talking from his usual roosting spot. After waiting ten minutes, he didn't gobble... but i heard a few gobbles from a nearby hardwood section. After getting one last gobble to give me a better idea of where he was, I eased through the hardwoods from ridge to ridge - stopping every now and then to softly cluck and yelp. Crows started going nuts right where I expected him to be... so I eased up to around 125 yards and sat down.

Ten minutes and two calling sequences later... nothing doing. So, I eased on further toward his likely location. When I reached the knoll on a ridge, I softly yelped on my slate... and he cut me off. Being that he was about 75 yards away and under a hill from me, I decided he would most likely walk an old roadbed up the hill to me rather than come through some thicker brush on the hill... so I settled in against a huge white oak tree and got ready. After five minutes of silence, I softly clucked on the slate - and he answered just under the hill (probably 60 yards). Knocking the safety off, I got ready and it was just a few minutes later when I saw a white head appear coming up the road... he wasn't in strut, but I heard spitting. Sure enough, the strutter was behind him. At about ten yards, I squeezed the trigger... and he went down. His buddy couldn't figure it out... and when he jumped on top of his dead buddy and raised his wings, I could see he didn't have any spurs!

When he finally moved off, I went to retrieve my bird... and wouldn't you know it, he didn't have any spurs either. Two two-year-old birds with hens - neither have spurs. First no-spur bird I've ever killed - beard was 10 1/2 inches. Go figure...

Good job...

I hate picking up a bird with no spurs, but it beats not picking one up at all.

One of my most memorable hunts years ago was a dang no spurred turkey.

Congrats!

Sounds like a fun hunt tho!

I've never seen a spurless gobbler. However, one morning in Autauga county I did watch one of the best gobbling birds ever die and he didn't even have nub for a beard. Nothing. Not beard rot. Not even a place for one to grow. Weird.

Dr. B

speaking of no spurs after killing a bird last year with no spurs i was talking to a buddy that is a wildlife biologist and he says TRUE eastern strain turkeys don't have spurs. the spurs on easterns have came from cross breeding over decades and replanting turkey populations. he says if you kill a true strain eastern they are 13-15# tops with no spurs.. now i don't know if there is any truth to this but before i even showed him a picture he nailed the characteristics of the bird i killed. spur less (no even a dimple) beard had no amber tips and was a whopping 14# 3 oz full fan and and darker colors. have any of yall ever heard of this before???

Nope. When in the season did you kill him? Those real late season birds are always lighter than the early season ones. Sometimes they go as low as 15lbs but may have over an inch of spurs and 10+inches of beard.

Dr. B

think i killed him opening or second weekend last yr.

True Easterns shed their spurs I hear, I know the 3 I have killed this year shed theirs onto a string hanging in my garage

The first one I killed this year had what I've always thought of as Jake spurs. Maybe a 1/2" and rounded. He came in strutting and leading a drove. Spurs probably aren't as good of an aging reference as a lot of folks want them to be.

Talked to a guy at gander mountain today (customer) that on top of being a smaller bird the "true eastern" are more iridescent. He also mentioned something about very small white feathers not being present where the tail fan feathers connect to the skin. Has anyone ever heard this?

Kerry! Those TSS do damage! Congrats

That head is tore up!!

Looks like a freaking scalping went down!

Dr. B

I killed one that had no spurs in Perry County a few years ago. Weird

Congratulations

One of the birds I killed on the Cahaba Management Area didn't have any spurs. Full fan and beard though.


Congrats!!


God Bless,
David B.

Congrats buddy