My thinking has been that those were 2 yr birds, but of course the whole theory could be wrong. As we have said, it doesn't really matter, but I'm always curious about such things.

My interpretation has been that a 2 yr old with 1" spurs is normal. 1 and 1/8" is the longest I've personally killed that had amber, but the picture you posted a few days ago was 1.25". I've been thinking that was a very unusual turkey, and likely the reason he was used to make the point.

How about posting pictures of those beards and the spurs? I'd be willing to dig out a large sample and post them if folks are really interested. I'm not sure there is enough interest to go to all that trouble.

PCP, I’ve got quite a collection of beards and spurs, although likely not as impressive as yours. I’ve not killed a turkey this year that I was confident was 2 based on spurs and amber tipped beard. My son killed a bird with 15/16” spurs and his beard was 10 1/8” with amber all in the tips. I killed a bird with a double beard, the longest of which was 11 5/8” and he had very small short spurs that were sharp as needles. They were 3/4” and 13/16”. He had no amber. Zilch. I am fairly confident regardless of his spur length, given their sharpness that he was not 2. I was using the all black beard as well for confirmation in my own mind. The bird I killed today throws a wrench in all of it. He’s the only bird I can remember, in recent years after I started actually looking, that had amber tips and long curved spurs.

Congrats everyone on their kills

Congrats killers

Bumped the safety at 9:43 after striking him in the tree before 6:00. Was a fine bird made finer because he came to a wingbone call and a slate I made this weekend.

Very cool. Congrats.

Congrats on the kills!!

Congrats on the kills

Thanks for the info, Matt. I have a lot of sharp, and even curved spurs that are only around 3/4" with no amber. I always thought that those were 3+ turkeys, and the kind that cause researchers like Chamberlain to discount the use of spurs at all in aging turkeys. I have thought for many years that the old charts that aged gobblers by spur length were unreliable and should not have ever been published.

We have discussed on here before that there is some judgment involved in aging by the amber tips, as most beards will have some amount of amber; it's just that there is usually a lot more in the ones that we call 2 yr olds. Your turkey sure looks like an older one based on spurs. Since he has a lot of amber, he definitely casts doubt on the reliability of the method.

I don't really understand the process that produces the amber tips. I know that it's something to do with the growth process of the beard, but I've never read a good explanation of what is happening that was written by a professional. Do you know of a book or article where it is described? Thanks

I will try and take some today and post tomorrow.