How to Score a Wild Turkey

It’s that time of year to get out in the woods for some turkey hunting. While most turkey hunters don’t really ever score their bird, there is a method if you’re interested. I found this post by Cole Daniels over at FormostHunting.com and I thought that it was good enough to repost here… so if you’re interested in knowing how to score a turkey, get yourself a measuring tape and read on.

There are three variables to score a turkey. Weight, beard length, and spur length.

Weight: Weigh your wild turkey and covert the ounces to decimals. i.e. 23 pounds 4 ounces is 23.25.
Beard Length: Beard measurements are taken to the 16th of an inch. To score a turkey measure from the turkey’s skin to the tip of the longest whisker then multiply that number by two. For example, if the turkey has a 9 ¾” beard, the score would be 9.75 x 2 or 19.5. for multiple bearded turkeys, add the lengths of each beard and multiply the total by two to get the beard score.
Spur Length: Measure the spurs from the base to the tip on both legs. To get the spur score, multiply the total by ten. For example, if one spur is an inch and the other is 1 ¼”, the spur score is 2.25 x 10 or 22.5.

how to score a turkey
To get the final score, add all three numbers together. Our example bird has a weight of 23.25, a beard total of 19.5, and a spur total of 22.5. That scores this gobbler at 65.25. While this bird is a great one… it is a long way from the record eastern wild turkey. This Kentucky bird scored 104.81 with over 2” spurs, 13 ¾” beard, and a weight of over 33 ½ pounds.