Oconee National Foresst what happened to the population?

Thunder Head · May 10, 2018

When "it" happened I was at a loss as to what happened to all the turkeys in my area.

I now believe that a disease killed of a large portion of the population. Since then we have had less than spectacular hatches ever year. Therefore the population has not been able to increase due to low recruitment.

Dinosaur · May 10, 2018

sea trout said:
Yes I agree with that.
Still I would like to learn more of why the bad hatches happen.
I just don't see how hunting tactics and current legal gobbler limits affect bad hatches.

Here is my take on it. It's really simple addition and subtraction, yet so many try to make it rocket science. Hen and gobbler numbers are down. Making reproduction down. Add more and more hunters every year, without adjusting the limit, is plain crazy. An area that used to have three or four sexually mature gobblers, may now only have one. What happens to the few hens on that place when he is killed in the youth weekend? They don't get bred. If our population is down, and hens don't have a gobbler, you know the rest.That's how areas are being wiped out right now. I honestly believe this sums up most of our turkey issues. JMO though.

mtnDoc · May 10, 2018

I live and hunt WNC. Will only shoot 1 tom on any given piece of private land, no matter how many are present. Also, only use 1 of my 2 tags on private. If i use the 2nd, it will always be on a public land bird. Obviously that is my personal decision, but the best decision I feel i can make in order to insure my bird populations for the next year.

HD28 · May 10, 2018

Dinosaur said:
Here is my take on it. It's really simple addition and subtraction, yet so many try to make it rocket science. Hen and gobbler numbers are down. Making reproduction down. Add more and more hunters every year, without adjusting the limit, is plain crazy. An area that used to have three or four sexually mature gobblers, may now only have one. What happens to the few hens on that place when he is killed in the youth weekend? They don't get bred. If our population is down, and hens don't have a gobbler, you know the rest.That's how areas are being wiped out right now. I honestly believe this sums up most of our turkey issues. JMO though.

I agree with this myself.

delacroix · May 10, 2018

Well, they just burned a nesting area this week. That might have something to do with it. They say the loss of nest is small enough they deem it insignificant. Which is kinda convenient that they get to decide their destruction of nests is OK.

Then you have hens moving areas to start over. That puts more hens in a smaller area, making predation of nests and poults greater due to the ease with which predators can find them.

Oh and NWTF sending more hunters there because they wanted to show off having cleared a logging deck and calling it habitat improvement ain't helpin' neither!

sea trout · May 10, 2018

Dinosaur said:
Here is my take on it. It's really simple addition and subtraction, yet so many try to make it rocket science. Hen and gobbler numbers are down. Making reproduction down. Add more and more hunters every year, without adjusting the limit, is plain crazy. An area that used to have three or four sexually mature gobblers, may now only have one. What happens to the few hens on that place when he is killed in the youth weekend? They don't get bred. If our population is down, and hens don't have a gobbler, you know the rest.That's how areas are being wiped out right now. I honestly believe this sums up most of our turkey issues. JMO though.

Good opinion. I can't argue with that. And it is simple.
I still believe somthing else is helping, maybe blackheads desease ......I don't know, I don't know.....It's just fishy to me how, in my stompin area's, agriculture field birds are the ones goin away. And the forest/timber management birds are thriving! Like I said that's just what I've witnessed over the past 25 years in my stompin grounds.
I havn't been to the ONF in around 15 years. I remember it was full of birds in the 90's however.

Bo D · May 11, 2018

Decline in Stewart and Webster County where I been hunting since 04’ I’ve been the only one really hunting this place all that time so it’s not hunting pressure.
Even surrounding areas l am not seeing birds like I did just 5 yrs ago.
No doubt something is happening.

The mtn man · May 12, 2018

Populations have declined in areas I have always hunted, none of the reasons above apply, there is not much hunting pressure. No burning nests, no chicken manure. The hens are gone. And I'm not just talking about a few thousand acres, I'm talking about areas the size of a few counties. I always tried to hunt where no one else would go, lots of my old favorite productive places would be a 2-3 hour walk up to the AT to get to my morning listening spots where if a turkey gobbled a mile away I could here it, nothing but silence now, no hen sign either.

saltysenior · May 15, 2018

The mtn man said:
Populations have declined in areas I have always hunted, none of the reasons above apply, there is not much hunting pressure. No burning nests, no chicken manure. The hens are gone. And I'm not just talking about a few thousand acres, I'm talking about areas the size of a few counties. I always tried to hunt where no one else would go, lots of my old favorite productive places would be a 2-3 hour walk up to the AT to get to my morning listening spots where if a turkey gobbled a mile away I could here it, nothing but silence now, no hen sign either.

populations have declined in just about all areas east of the Miss.River....and most reasons given do not take place everywhere where this is happening.....hard to figure why agencies involved with turkey management have not got together and focused on a reason for this.

Dinosaur · May 16, 2018

saltysenior said:
populations have declined in just about all areas east of the Miss.River....and most reasons given do not take place everywhere where this is happening.....hard to figure why agencies involved with turkey management have not got together and focused on a reason for this.

The answer to your question is $. Salaries can be affected when they start probing around, shortening seasons, lowering bag limits etc. Sad but its true. Everything revolves around the dollar......

Oconee National Foresst what happened to the population?

Thunder Head

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Dinosaur

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mtnDoc

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HD28

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delacroix

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sea trout

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Bo D

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Dinosaur

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