The National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) is the defacto standard aka official keeper of wild turkey records just like Boone and Crockett is considered the keeper of whitetail deer records although they are being challenged on that by the newer buckmaster method.
The NWTF have been keeping records since 1982 and their website is the first place you should look when you want to compare your turkey to the best in the land.
| 1 OZ. = .0625 | 1/16 = .0625 | |
| 2 OZ. = .1250 | 2/16 = .1250 | |
| 3 OZ. = .1875 | 3/16 = .1875 | |
| 4 OZ. = .2500 | 4/16 = .2500 | |
| 5 OZ. = .3125 | 5/16 = .3125 | |
| 6 OZ. = .3750 | 6/16 = .3750 | |
| 7 OZ. = .4375 | 7/16 = .4375 | |
| 8 OZ. = .5000 | 8/16 = .5000 | |
| 9 OZ. = .5625 | 9/16 = .5625 | |
| 10 OZ. = .6250 | 10/16 = .6250 | |
| 11 OZ. = .6875 | 11/16 = .6875 | |
| 12 OZ. = .7500 | 12/16 = .7500 | |
| 13 OZ. = .8125 | 13/16 = .8125 | |
| 14 OZ. = .8750 | 14/16 = .8750 | |
| 15 OZ. = .9375 | 15/16 = .9375 |
Before you can begin to score your turkey a couple of points about how this works. The measurements are taken in 1/16 inch increments and then converted to decimal format. In other words no spurs will ever come out to be 1 inch and 1/32. Measurements are made to the nearest 1/16 of an inch.
Another point to remember is that your word doesn’t mean squat! As it shouldn’t. To actually get in the record books your turkey must be scored by an official NWTF scorer.
Ok now that that is out of the way here are the easy steps to scoring you turkey.
First weigh your bird in pounds and ounces and convert ounces to decimal form. Or if weighed on a digital scale you will need to take the digital number and find out what the nearest ounce weight would be. For example if you turkey weighs 20.52 pounds then you would need to convert that to 20.5 because it is closest to 20 pounds 8 oz. which converts to 20.5.
Next measure each spur along the outside center, from the point at which the spur protrudes from leg to the tip of the spur. The turkey should have two spurs so measure each in 1/16 increments and add together then multiply by 10. This will give you the number of point to use in scoring the spurs on your turkey.
Now measure the beard length and again and convert it to decimal form and multiply by two to get the score for the beard.
Occasionally a bird will have more than one beard. In this case you simply measure each beard, convert to a decimal number, add together and multiply by two. Simple enough.
Now for the last step add together the weight plus the spur points and the beard points to arrive at the total score. Some people add another step and embellish this number. That I will leave up to you.