intresting read

Garnto88

Senior Member
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 .
 

Gut_Pile

Senior Member
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 .

They don't use the harvest recording for estimated harvest numbers
 

Garnto88

Senior Member
I had read somewhere that they did and that is one excuse given for numbers down in 2016. There is no way to get an accurate number regardless. A survey is not accurate either. Regardless numbers are down due to reasons I gave .
 
when you have turkey hunted

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
 

XIronheadX

PF Trump Cam Operator !20/20
Good read Spurrs and racks. I've had birds gobble to the end most of the last 10 yrs. Most of the last 30 I guess. Random afternoon gobbles as well. I had one season they seemed to go silent an hour or so after daylight. Lots of stray dog, coyote activity that year. Having some big stands of hardwoods is important. Or select cut pine as well. I agree on the calling. Setup to call is everything.
 

Gut_Pile

Senior Member
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

there are so many inaccuracies in here it's not even funny.
 

Gut_Pile

Senior Member
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.
 

XIronheadX

PF Trump Cam Operator !20/20
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.

I think he means like year 2 to 10 after planting, Gut Pile. It is useless for quite a while. You can't even walk through it. Sometimes you just have to respect the elders and take it with a grain of salt. lol. There's some bad years, some bad weekends. But, that 2nd thinning before last year was the bomb. Turkey city
 

XIronheadX

PF Trump Cam Operator !20/20
I agree on the turkey habitat. It won't ever be the same. They take more and more hardwood. I've seen turkeys roost in trees the size of my leg swaying in the wind, and 30 ft pines. But, they like those big hardwoods or big pine. They are always along the main creek. They like what's left of the small hardwood fingers as well, as long as they can walk in some open pines. I saw poults a foot tall one time on the last weekend. Small ones a few times. Controlled burns can be bad as well as logging in spring. It's a hard life out there.
 
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the next time

you find yourself so thrilled to kill a two year old.....

go and spend a season, or two, or three trying to kill that bird that has all the hens, he has one or two old hens as a concubine, and alert him at your every step that you make as much as a leaf crackle, and will not come to your call and is still alive every year you take to the woods and you have called him unkillable....

And IF you can find a way to kill him...

Turkey hunting will take on a whole new meaning for you... I promise you

s&r
 

Gut_Pile

Senior Member
The next time you find yourself so deep in the hunt over one particular turkey, holding him a higher regard than any other turkey, remember what turkey hunting is about in the first place. This isn't a "trophy" sport. I've killed my fair share of "boss gobblers" as you would call them that had 1 1/4", 1 3/8", and 1 1/2" spurs that had plenty of hens with them all throughout the season. I hold those turkeys no higher than any two year old that comes to the gun.

Take a step back from your "trophy boss gobbler" pursuit, and turkey hunting will take on a whole new meaning for you...I promise you
 

Buckman18

Senior Member
Moving the season dates is silly.

I agree with S & R here. How many decades has our season started around March 20~ and ended May 15?

This isn't the issue. Turkeys are not being wiped out by hunters and hens are not having nesting issues because of hunters.
 

billy336

Senior Member
More birds are a result of a successful hatch. Nest protection should be everyone’s priority. Trap every coon and possum you can off your ground. I’ve had good success with this.
 
I doubt it

"Take a step back from your "trophy boss gobbler" pursuit, and turkey hunting will take on a whole new meaning for you...I promise you "
__________________

I had rather match wits with the wise old bird than all the young birds that fly down and act like the oversexed, loudmouthed teenagers they are....just me

s&r
 

billy336

Senior Member
Just read that coon season is closed until October, kinda odd , no season here. I manage a section of land here and trap every February , 42 coon and 9 possum caught this year. A touch below my 4 yr average. Hatches/poult soightings are up 150% in that timespan.
 
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