I call in at least a couple coyotes every Turkey season . I’m sure they aren’t exercisingCoyotes 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.
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.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.
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.What part of the state are you in/hunting in?
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Buckpasser, I have never hunted your part of the state, but do you have issues killing gobblers in mid April?
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
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 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.
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.