Turkey Score?

[kselkhunter]

Hi All,

I harvested my first ever turkey this morning.  Pretty excited about it.  I have called them in before, but never had one actually come in to shooting range.  As it seemed large to us, I went to the National Wild Turkey Federation website to figure out if the bird I shot was average size or not.  We plugged the measurements into the online calculator and came up with a score of 53.5 based on the measurements it asked for (the two spurs, beard, and weight).  It was 19.5 pounds, beard was 10.5", and spurs were 0.6" and 0.7". 

Is this average, good, bad?  Never harvested a bird, but it seemed big to us.  Plus I mainly want to eat it, as it's lots of meat.  Any suggestions for turkey recipes?  My wife wants me to smoke it.  I kept the tail fan and the wings and put in the freezer....any suggestions for preserving those?

Attached is photo of the bird with my best friend and I. 

Cheers,

Keith

[chester]

Good bird 👍 What sub species?

[PA BEN]

Avg. Wt and spurs. Nice beard most toms in that range are in the 9 inch range.I would say it's a 2 year old bird. Good Tom non the less.

[nwwanderer]

Low and slow on the cooking, moisture helps.  Tough is sometimes an understatement

[Mfowl]

Great bird! Congrats! If that's a Westside bird, double congrats!

[Oh Mah]

Very nice bird.Congratulations on the successful hunt.

[jpharcher]

Congrats!
Got my first last year, got my second this afternoon.
This is what I did with my first to commemorate.

[tgomez]

Congrats on your first gobbler. Probably a 1.5-2yr old bird with the weight/beard/spurs mentioned. Beards break off a lot and spurs can get wore down in rocky terrain. I wouldn't worry about size or age until you get more under your belt. You got to experience how much excitement and adrenaline is involved in turkey hunting today. That is something you will never forget. Your hooked for life now! Congratulations once again on your first tom!

[kselkhunter]

Thanks everyone. 

JPHarcher - did you do that mount yourself or send to a taxidermist?  If sent off, to whom?  I cut off the tail and wings intact and put in the freezer until I figure out what to do with them.  That display looks nice.

The interesting part of this bird was he was chasing a smaller tom into our decoys and my call.  Can't know what the bird was thinking, but seemed as if he wanted to prevent the smaller tom from getting to us (ie hens).  My buddy shot the small tom, and we still heard a gobble but coming from about 20 yards behind where my buddy shot the first tom (at that point we didn't realize there were two).  This larger tom (in the photos above) kept coming and went right for the other tom's flopping body, still 20 yards from my decoys.  Was bizarre, but I said to myself "OK", rose up and shot the second tom.  Fun day. 

In terms of being hooked, I've been hooked since years ago when the birds first started talking back to me.  Just finally got one in close, and learned enough over the years how to get one to come in that it finally came together.

[jpharcher]

I had a guy in Rochester do it, very reasonably priced

[PA BEN]

I've shot lots of toms and the one with him jumps him as he's flipping around.

[kselkhunter]

Thanks Pa Ben, that explains what we saw.  Seeing it the first time was freaky.  The bigger tom rushed the other one, looked like he wanted to kick it's butt. 

[PA BEN]

Yep kickem while their down.