Hens

Don't know about y'all, but I think that Ga. needs to have a fall hen season to weed those jokers out. Maybe have a limit of 3 hens in the fall like 3 toms in the spring.

Thoughts?

I do not like the idea of allowing hens to be hunted. I think it would dump the turkey population right down the drain.

I have mixed feelings about turkey and deer season overlapping. Turkey hunters don't wear orange

I want as many hens laying eggs as possible.

If I want to kill a hen (and I'd actually like to), I'll go to somebody else's state and kill one of theirs.

I know that most states do have a fall season and, in most, you can kill at least one hen. I'd just prefer not to do it here.

This is just my opinion. But I can't imagine a day when I'll say something to the effect of "MAN! We have TOO many turkeys here in Georgia!". That would be like saying I have too much money, or too much land to hunt IMO.

The states that have fall seasons where they kill hens have better spring hunting than Georgia.

bird_dawg said:

Don't know about y'all, but I think that Ga. needs to have a fall hen season to weed those jokers out. Maybe have a limit of 3 hens in the fall like 3 toms in the spring.

Thoughts?

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I think Georgia needs an accurate tagging system like Tennessee has before they allow a fall season.

Turkey Comander said:

The states that have fall seasons where they kill hens have better spring hunting than Georgia.

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....and, if it were true, what would you attribute that to?



So, say, Virginia, Vermont, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Mass have better spring hunting than Georgia? Or is it just that the states that DO happen to have better turkey hunting than Georgia also happen to have a fall season?

I'm inclined to buy the latter over the former.

According to my count from the NWTF, it looks like GA is tied for 5th as far as the size of turkey population goes (somewhere in the 300K range)...and there are 41 states that have a fall season. I'm not inclined to believe that all of the ones that allow killing hens have better spring hunting, are you?




I'm actually highly doubtful that ability to kill hens makes turkey hunting better in the spring. But I'm open to some actual study proof.

Turkey Comander said:

I think Georgia needs an accurate tagging system like Tennessee has before they allow a fall season.

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We need an accurate tagging system for deer too! But I digress....

I don't claim to know how it all works in terms of having a Fall season and taking hens and the effects of the population etc.

I did look at Tennessee and Georgia TC and the estimated bird counts are not that much different.

Tenn has 310k and a harvest of 31k. Georgia supposedly has 300k and last years harvest was 27,323.

Georgia has had a declining population of birds for the past 5-6 years primarily due to poor reproduction and Tennesseee has been experinecing a population expansion.

In case it sounds like I'm smart here, I'm not, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night...Actually I read this in the NWTF magazine.

Georgia is the only state I hunt that doesn't require tags and I've never quite understood that

3 thoughts here for me.

#1 : I can't imagine right now killing hens here until it feels like there are the birds that they say are here. I'd like to know a lot of eggs are hitting the ground.

#2: I might look for land in Tennessee. I didn't know ya'll had that many birds up there

#3 : How do they even begin to estimate bird counts? I can't accurately count the flock that walks by me

All good points. I didn't know that the population in Ga. was in a decline. If that is the case then I wouldn't call for a fall season either. I think one of the reasons that Ga. doesn't have a fall season is because the spring season is longer than other states. (at least that is what I read.)

Turkey Comander said:

The states that have fall seasons where they kill hens have better spring hunting than Georgia.

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I'd agree with that.

Boparks,

#3, I have no idea. I think it's somehow based on poult counts...but you got me.

I think the reason fall seasons don't affect spring seasons for the most part is simply that there are not that many hunters that will take to the fall turkey woods. And I would imagine that is especially true in GA. Everyone would be so preoccupied with deer.

So, like in your TN example, there are not all that many birds killed in the fall as compared to spring.

That said, I wouldn't be totally opposed to it as long as the weapon was limited. If they would require shotgun, ML or bow in the fall and keep the rifles out of the mix, then I'd be ok with it.

I just don't want a bunch of goober deer hunters who are carrying rifles starting to pick off the turkeys (and we all know that would happen if they allowed it).

I think the bottom line is that fall seasons just aren't very popular. So they have very little impact on the population.

Safety is the main downfall here in GA I think. There just aren't enough brains behind many of those rifle scopes and I'm afraid there would be some "problems" with safety.

bird_dawg said:

because the spring season is longer than other states. (at least that is what I read.)

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That is true...and a very valid point. Hadn't thought about that yet. Actually, I think we may have THE longest season in the country.

Ga has 57,906 square miles and tenn has 42,146. That needs to come into play when you are talking about numbers of birds.

A better tagging system would help with better estimation of numbers. If trends are down in specific areas then change fall limits as a management tool. No reason for limits to be state wide.

We have learned from deer studies that killing males only has little impact to no significant impact on overall population #'s but we also know that keeping sex ratios near 1:1 improves intensity of the rut and I think most hunters like that. My considerable experience with turkeys is that the spring hunting is better for toms when there are few hens around. Remeber spring is the "rut" time for turkeys so those of you deer hunters that live for that intense rut would love that same thing in the spring turkey woods. Of course few other states have the long spring season like here in GA. I also get that less hens means less eggs so it is best to error on the side of caution.

I am not aware of any state with a well managed fall season that has had it signifcantly lower overall numbers. A fall season would likely be open to both sexes if done similarly to other states. Overall year long limits could be modified.

I would recommend it overlap bow season for deer, not firearms. No need to send camo clad hunters into the deer woods during gun season.

I really and I mean REALLY enjoy fall turkey hunting! Busting up flocks and calling them back is a blast. I also like to make wingbone calls and gobbler bones make for poor quality calls.

The turkey population would be in trouble in 3 -5 years if we had a hen season. Then the turkey hunters would sound like all the deer hunters. "dnr is not managing the game right" "all the deer are gone". Very bad idea at this point.

mjfortner said:

The turkey population would be in trouble in 3 -5 years if we had a hen season. Then the turkey hunters would sound like all the deer hunters. "dnr is not managing the game right" "all the deer are gone". Very bad idea at this point.

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What, exactly, do you base that on?

300mag said:

Ga has 57,906 square miles and tenn has 42,146. That needs to come into play when you are talking about numbers of birds.

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Man 300mag........you must have stayed at Holiday Inn Express too?

Where'd you dig those numbers up at?


Huntinfool............yea I don't know how everything adds up in terms of cause and effect with birds.

I've read that the heavy rains we had this past Fall has hurt the birds...but we'll have alot of 2 year olds running around .

Bing search engine.

Would hurt population

driskell68664 said:

Would hurt population

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The handgun in your alvatar or shooting hens