If you stop and think about it…

[Long Cut]

Check out the time stamps on these 2 trail camera pictures.
Not even factoring in the raccoon and opossums, either.
Don’t believe fire ants are helping the poults as they hatch, either.
My .02

 

[buckpasser]

Coyotes are pretty slick. I doubt they waste much time pursuing things they can’t catch. I’ve had them charge my decoy multiple times. I also found the remains of a fresh killed gobbler down in a creek bed just in from the plot I’d been hunting him at. I can’t say what killed him, but there were coyote tracks present and feeding on the carcass.

 

[antharper]

Coyotes are pretty slick. I doubt they waste much time pursuing things they can’t catch. I’ve had them charge my decoy multiple times. I also found the remains of a fresh killed gobbler down in a creek bed just in from the plot I’d been hunting him at. I can’t say what killed him, but there were coyote tracks present and feeding on the carcass.

I call in at least a couple coyotes every Turkey season . I’m sure they aren’t exercising

 

[BeardbustR]

Absolutely no disrespect meant here Mr Herb, but where your are vs where I am (both in GA), are on vastly different time lines. The season will now come in at about the right time for you and your turkeys. Well, actually yours likely still won’t be breeding too much, but my season will be opening ridiculously late. All that you just stated came from the turkey doc and is an UNPROVEN theory. Turkeys have done well for a long time with the old season dates. They are about to be trending up again IMO, because that’s just what they do.

Seems like the later the season the better. The hens will be bred and on nests and the gobblers are still looking for hens to breed. The woods are all greened up and easier to hide and get closer to a willing gobbler. What's the issue? All my GA. birds came at the tail end of the season last year.

 

[buckpasser]

Seems like the later the season the better. The hens will be bred and on nests and the gobblers are still looking for hens to breed. The woods are all greened up and easier to hide and get closer to a willing gobbler. What's the issue? All my GA. birds came at the tail end of the season last year.

What part of the state are you in/hunting in?

 

[BeardbustR]

What part of the state are you in/hunting in?

I hunt from about middle Ga. north into east Tn. and try to hunt a few times in Alabama around the Tnf area. I've found the gobblers are willing to mate just about any time they think a hen will let them.

 

[Gadget]

Seems like the later the season the better. The hens will be bred and on nests and the gobblers are still looking for hens to breed. The woods are all greened up and easier to hide and get closer to a willing gobbler. What's the issue? All my GA. birds came at the tail end of the season last year.

I hunt from about middle Ga. north into east Tn. and try to hunt a few times in Alabama around the Tnf area. I've found the gobblers are willing to mate just about any time they think a hen will let them.

Yeah you and your dad did good on Cohutta last season.

 

[Gut_Pile]

Buckpasser, I have never hunted your part of the state, but do you have issues killing gobblers in mid April?

 

[Gut_Pile]

No one has ever stated that killing Toms (not hens) too early has hurt their overall population until the turkey doc did it as far as I know.

Bill Healy (long time USDA biologist) recommended post breeding season dates as far back as the 70's. Let me do some digging and I will find the info

 

[Dustin Pate]

Some folks care about a roof over their head, food on the table, clothes on their back, the needs of their family, and making a living. Many out there don`t care about the needs of others, as long as they have a critter to hunt. My thoughts about people like that can`t be spoken on a family friendly website.

Hay cutting on the family farm gets done when it is ready to cut. Plain and simple. We work within the weather and enough other factors as well. We still have plenty of turkeys around to hunt. I only know of one nest that got cut over the last 15 years.

 

[BeardbustR]

I wouldn't want to be a hen trying to lay and hatch a nest full of eggs with all the predators in the woods trying to get to them. You add a bunch of hunters walking through the woods during breeding season busting them off their nests, spooking them as they try to do their daily business of surviving. It's no wonder that poult numbers are down. The stress level on them is enormous. I have spooked hens and watched them drop eggs as they fly off and found stray eggs here and there and know that a spooked hen probably dropped it. Add all the open areas, food plots, hunters like to provide for turkeys. Those are kill zones that birds of prey just sit on and pick the poults off one by one. I think feeders are another ambush spot for predators and have the potential to infect the birds with various diseases that are fatal to them. The restocking program done back in the 70's was a great success temporarily. But as the years go by and more of the wild traits of the turkey are diluted by the genes of inferior birds, our wild turkey is turning more and more domestic, unable to survive in the wild. The turkeys we hunt today are nothing like the pure wild birds we use to hunt years ago.

 

[RedHills]

But as the years go by and more of the wild traits of the turkey are diluted by the genes of inferior birds, our wild turkey is turning more and more domestic, unable to survive in the wild. The turkeys we hunt today are nothing like the pure wild birds we use to hunt years ago.

Agree with most of your comments....but this I'll have to think on. On face, it seems completely against the proven intelligence of nature and natural things.

 

[Nicodemus]

I wouldn't want to be a hen trying to lay and hatch a nest full of eggs with all the predators in the woods trying to get to them. You add a bunch of hunters walking through the woods during breeding season busting them off their nests, spooking them as they try to do their daily business of surviving. It's no wonder that poult numbers are down. The stress level on them is enormous. I have spooked hens and watched them drop eggs as they fly off and found stray eggs here and there and know that a spooked hen probably dropped it. Add all the open areas, food plots, hunters like to provide for turkeys. Those are kill zones that birds of prey just sit on and pick the poults off one by one. I think feeders are another ambush spot for predators and have the potential to infect the birds with various diseases that are fatal to them. The restocking program done back in the 70's was a great success temporarily. But as the years go by and more of the wild traits of the turkey are diluted by the genes of inferior birds, our wild turkey is turning more and more domestic, unable to survive in the wild. The turkeys we hunt today are nothing like the pure wild birds we use to hunt years ago.

The turkeys we used to hunt back in the 60`s down here in South Georgia didn`t look anything like the turkeys we have here now, Jeff. The turkeys here back then looked like Osceola`s.

 

[herb mcclure]

Nicodemus said, " turkeys we used to hunt back in the 60's down here in South Georgia didn't look nothing like the turkeys we have now".
Nicodemus, I have been preaching that same difference for several years now, about the wild turkeys here in the North Georgia Mountain too. I have even wrote a book titled Native Turkeys which tells of comparisons between live trapped stocked turkeys and the original native turkeys I hunted, starting back in the mid-fifties.
My hat is off also to BeardbusteR, for having the gumption, to tell newer hunters what's been happening to today's wild Turkeys.

 

[Nicodemus]

Nicodemus said, " turkeys we used to hunt back in the 60's down here in South Georgia didn't look nothing like the turkeys we have now".
Nicodemus, I have been preaching that same difference for several years now, about the wild turkeys here in the North Georgia Mountain too. I have even wrote a book titled Native Turkeys which tells of comparisons between live trapped stocked turkeys and the original native turkeys I hunted, starting back in the mid-fifties.
My hat is off also to BeardbusteR, for having the gumption, to tell newer hunters what's been happening to today's wild Turkeys.

I have your book, and really enjoyed reading it. You might not remember me but we met up at the Perry turkey show back years ago.

 

[buckpasser]

Buckpasser, I have never hunted your part of the state, but do you have issues killing gobblers in mid April?

I can kill them anytime (cause they’re not very smart), but they’re the most fun to hunt down here in March.

 

[buckpasser]

Bill Healy (long time USDA biologist) recommended post breeding season dates as far back as the 70's. Let me do some digging and I will find the info

With that recommendation I bet they called him “Bill the thrill” in his circuits. Maybe we should move deer season to turkey season and turkey season to red belly season? Gee whiz.

 

[buckpasser]

I wouldn't want to be a hen trying to lay and hatch a nest full of eggs with all the predators in the woods trying to get to them. You add a bunch of hunters walking through the woods during breeding season busting them off their nests, spooking them as they try to do their daily business of surviving. It's no wonder that poult numbers are down. The stress level on them is enormous. I have spooked hens and watched them drop eggs as they fly off and found stray eggs here and there and know that a spooked hen probably dropped it. Add all the open areas, food plots, hunters like to provide for turkeys. Those are kill zones that birds of prey just sit on and pick the poults off one by one. I think feeders are another ambush spot for predators and have the potential to infect the birds with various diseases that are fatal to them. The restocking program done back in the 70's was a great success temporarily. But as the years go by and more of the wild traits of the turkey are diluted by the genes of inferior birds, our wild turkey is turning more and more domestic, unable to survive in the wild. The turkeys we hunt today are nothing like the pure wild birds we use to hunt years ago.

I hate to say that minus your predation comments, I agree with basically nothing you said there. If there are inferior turkeys put into the woods, they won’t be there long. I can count on one hand how many hens I’ve blown off the nest while turkey hunting, and I’ve hunted more than I’m proud of. Just a nothing burger as far as population impact.

BTW, around here the restocking effort was with net canon caught wild turkeys, not barn yard bronzes.

 

[buckpasser]

I hunt from about middle Ga. north into east Tn. and try to hunt a few times in Alabama around the Tnf area. I've found the gobblers are willing to mate just about any time they think a hen will let them.

It’s easy to make comments about a later season being great up that far north. It’s a different world down here. I’m trying to burn the last couple blocks now (too late really, but no choice…) and there are new leaves, not just buds, but LEAVES on my sweetgums. Spring has sprung here, and we get the short end of the stick. I won’t have hard feelings for the preseason poachers anymore.

 

[Gadget]

The turkeys we used to hunt back in the 60`s down here in South Georgia didn`t look anything like the turkeys we have here now, Jeff. The turkeys here back then looked like Osceola`s.

The old turkey hunters I know hunting in the south Florida Everglades say the only true Osceolas left are down in the Big Cypress swamps at the southern most part of the turkey range, all the other northern Osceola are hybrids mixed with easterns. They're smaller black gobblers, usually only 12-16lbs, smaller feet, spurs, beards, heads etc.