Check out this beard

[sself]

Shot a decent bird today. Spurs were 1 1/8, nice full fan, and weighed about 22 lbs, but it had a disappointing beard. As you can see, it is pencil thin and barely hits 7 inches. It has the base of a thick beard, where it meets the chest, but only about 1/4 of the strands were still in it. Is this normally caused from fighting? Normal wear from walking? Lack of nutrients?

[WV TURKEY THUG]

That's something else. Good bird though. Can't eat the beard or can you lol. I've heard of beard rot before but don't no if its true. I also heard it can freeze and break in the winter.don't no if that's true either.

[WildTigerTrout]

I bagged a big gobbler in Pa. like that in 2004. He weighed 23 pounds and had heavy 1 1/4 inch spurs. The beard was almost a twin to yours. It was very thin and about 7  1/2" long. To this day I don't know what caused it. Anybody have any ideas?

[TRKYHTR]

It's probably from a lack of melanin. Thats what alot of people call beard rot but it has nothing to do with the beard rotting. It just grows out from the body lacking melanin which makes it brittle. Most of the time it's caused when turkeys are injured or have a lack of good nutrition for whatever reason. It usually comes out looking white or yellowish. Nice turkey. Congrats,

TRKYHTR

[DirtNap647]

shot one like that myself a few years back

[sself]

Here is a better picture of it. The turkey did seem to have taken some shot in the breast in the past, because I found some copper plated shot, and some very bloody, bruised up meat. I'm certain it wasn't mine, because I wasn't shooting copper, and I shot him in the head at about 10 steps. Not sure if that injury would affect the beard or not.

[njdevilsb]

I shot a mature tom with a beard about 4 inches long that had the orangish yellow color on the end of the strands.  It was almost like somebody took a pair of scissors to it since it was so even accross.

[Punisher]

I shot one two years ago that weighed nearly 24 lbs.,1 1/4" spurs, and had a 3 1/4" beard.  Like previously mentioned, the tip of his beard was a burnt amber color.  But what beard he had was thick.

[Spring Creek Calls]

Here's a picture of the bird I shot in MO this spring.  Pretty much a classic 2 year old except for the beard. Had to lean out around the tree and shoot him behind me so had not had an opportunity to see the beard on his approach. I was a little worried for a minute that he didn't have a beard.

[mikejd]

My dad shot a mature gobbler about 4 yrs ago that had all of about a 1/2" of beard. We still have it and laugh about it. It looked like he had cut it off.

[wvboy]

If he had shot in him from someone else it could have just been shot off .. beard rot or Melanin deficiency usually is a clean break off like you took a pair of scissors to it.. and has a white or yellow tint where the break is..

[remmy1187]

I shot this bird on Monday, he was fighting with a couple other birds before I shot him, dont know if that could cause this.

[870FaceLift]

I shot this bird on Monday, he was fighting with a couple other birds before I shot him, dont know if that could cause this.

I shot a turkey with a beard exactly like this just last week.  The remaining long strands have orange-colored marks at the same length the thicker part ends.  In other words, it looks like it was fraying to continue falling off at the same spot.  I'll try to post a close-up later.  I chalked it up to injury or malnourishment. Interesting...

[gophert]

Here is a classic case of beard rot.  This bird was 4+ years old. 

[catman529]

If you found shot in the breast then my money is on shot, rather than beard rot. Who knows though...