spurrs and racks
Banned
http://www.gon.com/hunting/rebound-year-georgia-turkeys
Some of this is questionable at its very best.
s&r
Some of this is questionable at its very best.
s&r
Not sure if the 2016 figure is accurate. That year was transition year for new harvest recording by dnr. I do agree numbers are down due to clear cutting and loss of habitat. Add predation to that also .
as long as I have, you do realize that a fresh pine replant clearcut will be a long, long time before it will be turkey habitat again. And, it will never be the turkey habitat it was at one time when the natural forest was 50% hardwood.
Turkeys are birds, the population goes in ebbs and flows. There will be years when there are good hatches and two years in a row of good hatches makes for good turkey hunting. The opposite is also true. A poor hatch followed but a second poor hatch has the same affect. A few years when turkey hunting will be tough.
After the poults hatch, a lot of factors add or subtract from the numbers that actually make it to adult birds. So you can have a fair to good hatch and you still might have a bunch of hens in the woods to make more flock.
An old gobbler can mate every hen in the woods and never make a sound. Gobbling is a treat, the best turkey hunters I ever new could not call a lick, but they new turkeys and turkey habits and turkey habitat.
Now, the following is opinion, and everybody has at least two and they both stink. Kinda like your feet.
Moving the season dates is silly. Last year for example I know for a fact that turkey hunting was over with before the season started both here in Georgia and in Alabama. Early unseasonably warm temps cause the hens to be bred and go to the nest early. I never heard a bird gobble after the 2nd week of the season last year. In either state.
I don't kill jakes...intentionally. but if I shoot one it should now be against the law.....that is silly. The gobbler population will NOT affect the breeding success of the hen population. Anybody who has ever Turkey hunted for boss gobblers has learned this.
How do you know the boss gobbler? He is the one with all the hens. That needs to sink in a bit. By the time the season comes in, hens are bred already. A hen can store sperm for 90 days before she has to be bred again.
last but certainly not least. Control burning any date after March 1 is NOT good for turkey reproduction. Do not listen to the trash, because it is trash. Can she re-nest certainly. But every time her nest is lost and she has to repeat this process, the actual numbers of poults that make it greatly DECREASE.
This is the one thing that you can relate to deer births. The more offspring in the woods that are born at the same time, greatly increases the chance that more make it.
IMHO
s&r
I'm an educated man.
And, you don't hunt boss gobblers. And, I bet you have no idea how to do it.
s&r
Freshly planted pine plantation clear cut makes great turkey habitat. Especially nesting. And once it is mature timber that is thinned, it makes incredible habitat that has more food in it year round than any hardwood bottom around.
Your statement around population ebbs and flows is correct and I agree
Turkey hunting wasn't over before the season started. That is by far the most inaccurate statement that is made over and over by many inexperienced and naive hunters. You stated "An old gobbler can mate every hen in the woods and never make a sound. Gobbling is a treat, the best turkey hunters I ever new could not call a lick, but they new turkeys and turkey habits and turkey habitat." and then stated "Early unseasonably warm temps cause the hens to be bred and go to the nest early. I never heard a bird gobble after the 2nd week of the season last year. In either state." So which is it? Are you sure you aren't just a bad turkey hunter?
Gobbler harvest CAN effect turkey populations when the recruitment is nearly non existent. That is fact, you kill all the gobblers on your property, with no gobblers to replace them, your population will diminish.
By the time the season comes in, hens are bred already.
Control burning any date after March 1 is NOT good for turkey reproduction.
s&r
Moving the season dates is silly.