Bird Weights

[Mergie Master]

Seems like there's a lot of birds that weigh 19 lbs or right at it this year. I've noticed it before, funny how that seems to works. It was either last year or year before that it seemed like most of the birds posted weighed around 17 lbs.

A 19 lb bird is a good solid bird for South Carolina since our turkeys are mostly free 'range birds'. What I mean by that is the majority of our birds aren't grain fed like some states.

Seriously I don't know if it's the feed or genetics. But from talking to turkey hunters in places like Iowa and Kansas it's common, almost expected, for their jakes to weigh 22 or 23 lbs.

[trentsmith]

I expect all my turkeys to weigh at least 10#.

[nitro5x6's]

I have killed two in SC that weighed 20 lbs or a little over. Most were 17-18 Lbs.

Late season birds were 16 lbs or a little more. Spurs................are where it's at.

We did have a bonafide 21 lber killed off our property in March...he was huge. From a property with little ag in the area- other than acorns and our foodplots..

[pee dee]

The biggest bird i have ever killed was been 20.5 lbs, and that is out of a pretty large sample. Id like to see the scales on some of these "23 pounders" ive heard about this year.

[Mergie Master]

Like Nitro I have only killed 2 20 or slightly over here. One of them came off of public land.

[2thDoc]

g-belly killed one a couple of years ago that was 21+ i seem to recall. maybe KRT or squatty can chime in. i disremember.

[Glenn]

I've killed some 20+ here but most are in the upper teens.

Heaviest I've killed was in Tinner-C. Those birds there can get down right huge.

[mhogancu]

whalerdave and I killed one that was 23.4 on the digital berkley scale a few years ago.

[Tater]

I have only killed 1 bird over 20lbs....Tot has never killed a bird UNDER 20lbs....(all verified and legitimate weights, his time is coming though, lol)

[Rem11-87]

My father killed a stud a few years ago that weighed right at 21. i have never been over 19. My smallest was a 11 in beard, 1 in spur bird that weighed 14 on a government track. The two areas that I mainly hunt are a swamp and the farm. Birds killed on the farm all go around 16-19 lbs but birds killed in the swamp 14-16. I guess it is what all they eat.

[ktownduckhunter]

dont think i have ever broke the 20# mark. But i just started putting my birds on a scale about 2 years ago. I have had a few go 18-19. Killed one about 4 years ago i bet would have broke the 20# mark. Beast of a bird, 12 1/4 in. beard 1 1/4 spurs but didnt have a scale to put him on. Bad thing was i wasnt even trying to turkey hunt i was fishing in the pond behind the house and he just came out in the field and started gobbling and struting his tail off, last week of the season. Threw on some camo and got the gun, 10 mins later he was on the dirt!! big sob!

[CreekGeek]

Out of the 22 birds I've killed 4 of them were 20lbs or better. 2 were 19lbs. I averaged them together and my average tom is 18.67.bs with an average beard lenth of 10.8" and average spurs of 1.02".

[BigBrother]

My biggest was just shy of 19lbs.

Most of my birds have been swamp birds. 17lbs being the norm.

[Tater]

Kentucky has BIG birds.

[DMP]

Ive only killed two over 20 lbs. One was 21 and the other was 23. Put the 23 on two different scales to verify and sure enough both showed 23 lbs. Both birds were killed around a farm.

[dixiedeerslaya]

Until this year i had only killed one bird over 20lbs. (20.5 i think), and so far this year ive killed 2 over that (20.54 and 21.62). But strangly, the other two i have killed have been tiny, both weighing 16.6lbs. One of which had a set of 1-5/16 limbhanger spurs... All being killed within a mile of each other... The 21.62 pounder was actually killed within 400 yards of where the 16.6lb limbhanger was killed.

I dunno, that just proves that the spurs are the only thing that counts... Hell i have killed two true "inch and a halfers" and one weighed 18.5 and the other 19.5......and then this year i kill a 21.6 with 1-1/8 spurs.

[redhead25]

I think it all depends on the terrain. On my club, i rarely kill one under twenty lbs. That is where the 24.5 lb'er came from this year and I have killed 3 over 22 lbs. there in the past. On the swamp tract i have, I rarely kill a bird over 17 or 18lbs.

[SaltMuck]

A guy at work told me last week he had a guy on his property just kill a 30 lb bird. I called BS and told him to tell the guy to call DNR and have it checked......sure enough, it was 30.0 lbs. on the nose. They told him they think it has some domestic genes in it somewhere. It had a couple of whitish feathers and had massive feet. The snood hung down and was almost 7 inches. Spurs were a little over an inch, but sharp and it had about an 8.5 in beard if I remember right. I have seen pics of it and it looked GROWN.

I wouldn't have believed it if it wasn't checked in!

[trkykilr]

I could give a shit about the weight. Really don't care. The best ones I've killed have been those long legged 16 pound swamp chickens.

[BRR]

i think the upstate gets has slightly heavier birds. most of mine have been around 19lbs with 4 or 5 being 21lbs or slightly over. i have never killed a longbeard under 18lbs.

But like Nitro said Spurs are where it's at!