wingchaser_labs

My dad killedatom 8 days ago in WIs first season. He shot it sunday afternoon and it was the second bird he has killed with white bars in the tail feathers (3 middle tail feathers were striped with white bars). Bird was a good healthy 23 lbs but upon inspection the spurs were wore down exposing the inner bone of the spur and around the spurs the leg scales were kinda bloody/scarred looking. There was about 3/4 of the spur shell on one side and about 1/2 the spur shell on the other. By the looks of the bone the spurs would have been1 1/4 or betteras the bone was about 1 1/8 inch. My dad thinks its because of the hard winter we had here in WI with alot of icey layers and I think its a combo of the winter and old age of the bird. The bird apeared to be old to me I guess with decent spur length and the beard was really thin and wirey than normal I thought. Just wonderin if any other WI or northern foks have seen anything like this? WCL

BowHuntingFool

WC, the bird I killed the 1st season had his spurs wore down to a rounded point! My taxidermist said he was an older bird but figured his 1 inch spurs were wore down because of the harsh winter. He weighed in at 24lbs, 12" beard, 30" fan spread and only 1 inch spurs! All in all a great bird coming off such a harsh winter!! This winter was a rough one around here, a lot of snow and ice for months at a time! The entire late season Bowhunt we had snow/ice covering the ground! Have you got any pics of the birds spurs???


This pic really shows how the spurs are wore down.

wingchaser_labs

Yeah.... No the one my dad killed the spur shell was broken and splinted off and you could see the bone and half and 3/4 ofeach spurshell was missing/ripped off. Wish I would have taken pics. I could get some pics but it wont be till this weekend or the next.WCL