NWTF scoring system provides avenue for hunters to learn how their longbeard rates

I can't help but giggle when I recall the look on Jim Crumley's face in the wake of a wisecrack directed his way by Lendell Martin, Jr. For a lack of better words, I will chalk up Martin's comment to a late-blooming education in evaluating trophy class longbeards.

Crumley is veteran turkey hunter from Roanoke, VA. who in the early 1970s changed the face of modern hunting when he invented tree bark camouflage. He has killed dozens big gobblers over the years. Most have been taken with a shotgun or archery gear after being called in close enough that he could have hit them with rock.

Photo by Matt Williams (enlarge photo) Weight, spur length and beard length are the key components used when calculating a score on a wild turkey. Spring turkey hunters can learn more on how to tally a score on the National Wild Turkey Federation's website, www.nwtf.org. Photo by Matt Williams (enlarge photo)

Martin is a veteran professional bass angler who lives in East Texas, but he spends a considerable amount of time at his family's Rio Springs ranch near Del Rio on the Texas/Mexico border.

Rio Springs is not one of those 100 acre "ranches" you hear those big city boys brag about when describing their weekend getaways. Martin's place defines ranch. It is huge. The property spans 15,000 rugged acres and flourishes with all sorts of wildlife that enjoy a smorgasbord of store-bought goodies year-round. The ranch's deer population is bountiful, but the numbers of Rio Grande turkeys that live behind the gates is even greater.

I have visited Rio Springs on several occasions. At day break, it is nothing out of the ordinary to hear so many tom turkeys gobbling in unison that it is impossible to count them.

Interestingly, Martin had always looked at his wild turkeys as more of a nuisance than a blessing until a group of spring turkey hunting junkies from back East descended on the place nearly a decade ago. Crumley was among them.

I was photographing Crumley with a magnificent gobbler he harvested on a cool April morning when Martin approached us from the rear. I had posed Crumley holding the bird by its scaly legs so as to display the giant spurs that protruded just above gnarly-looking feet.

"What the heck are you taking pictures of that bird's feet for," Martin quizzed.

Martin's attitude was somewhat nonchalant when Crumley explained that spur length on a gobbler turkey is akin to tine length on the antlers of a buck whitetail when is comes to assessing how a bird stacks up against others.

"Really?" Martin said with a chuckle. "Hmmm. I've thrown bigger ones than that in the burn pile. Guess I'll have to start paying closer attention. This place is full of birds like that."

Crumley didn't argue. After one day spent chasing turkeys on the massive chunk of real estate located in Val Verde and Kinney counties, the veteran hunter ranked it at the top of the long list of great venues he has visited over the years.

"I've never seen anything like this place," Crumley said. "It is definitely world class."

Spring Turkeys:

What's the Score?

Scoring turkeys for state and world record consideration is not yet as popular with Texas turkey hunters as scoring whitetail bucks is with deer hunters. And many Texas wildlife biologists would probably just as soon keep it that way.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department wildlife biologists and other certified scorers already have their hands full each fall and winter scoring hundreds of big game animals for entry to the Texas Big Game Awards Program.

If a similar program were hatched for turkeys and only a small percentage of Texas' 75,000 turkey hunters decided to play the game, biologists might not get to put their measuring tapes and calculators down until the end of spring. Regardless, the interest in scoring turkeys appears to be growing.

The official keeper for state and world records on wild turkeys is the National Wild Turkey Federation. NWTF began compiling records in 1982. More than 12,000 gobblers have been registered since that time.

Records are maintained in several categories for Rio Grande, Eastern, Gould's, Merriam's, Florida and Ocellated turkeys. Two of those are found in Texas — the Eastern and Rio Grande.

Birds are ranked according to spur length, beard length, weight and total points. The are divisions for turkeys taken by modern firearm, archery and muzzleloader, and two "types" of turkey — typical and atypical.

A typical turkey is classified as one having one beard and two spurs. A turkey with more than one beard and/or more than two spurs is considered atypical.

Scoring a turkey is much easier than scoring the rack on a whitetail buck according to Boone and Crockett scoring system, the most widely accepted scoring system for big game animals. There are fewer components to consider when scoring a turkey.

You can view the easy-to-follow formula on the NWTF website, www.nwtf.org. It is listed under the turkey records link. It is worth noting that measurements should be taken in 1/16-inch increments and then converted to decimals using the NWTF's scoring calulator, which can be found on the web.

Here's how to score a gobbler using the NWTF scoring system:

* Step 1: Weigh the turkey in pounds and ounces and convert the ounces to decimal form.

* Step 2: Measure each spur. Spurs should be measured along the outside center, from the point at which the spur protrudes from the scaled leg skin to the tip of the spur. Add both spur measurements and multiply the combined length of the spurs by 10. The total equals the points awarded for the spurs.

* Step 3: Measure the beard length starting at the protrusion of the skin to the tip and convert it to decimal form. Multiply the beard length figure by 2. This is the number of points awarded for beard length.

On turkeys with multiple beards, measure each beard and convert the total of each to decimals. Add the figures together and multiply by 2 to determine the total number of points.

* Step 4: Add the weight, spur and beard point totals together. This is the score for your turkey.

There are several Texas birds that rank high among the national records. Cody May of New Boston shot an Eastern gobbler in Bowie County last season that ranks No. 1 overall in the beard length category for Eastern gobblers. May's bird had a 22.500-inch beard.

Texas Rio Grande gobblers occupy the top three national spots for the longest spur, all at 2.0 inches, and the top 12 spots in overall points.

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Matt Williams is a freelance writer based in Nacogdoches.