Is 50 day season too much for the birds

[spurrs and racks]

is 50 day......?

no
no
no

s&r

 

[deerpoacher1970]

Try to keep up kmac. It is not about the number of gobblers killed. It is being in the woods while turkeys are trying to nest, hatch and raise the poults to survival size.
Go kill your 3 and then let the birds have the woods back. Leave the limit at 3 just shorten the season.
Oh...your house birds dont count. You might as well coup them up. They are ruined for life.

Not trying to sound smart but if you want to shorten your season go a head but for the people who have to work for a living they might get to hunt 10 or so days a season if they are lucky then you got to factor in bad weather days that ain't much so I think the turkeys will be ok.

 

[Timber1]

Not to sound smart but my Ga. season is pretty short most years. We could just leave it open year round and you stop when you get 3. How bow dah?

 

[deerpoacher1970]

3 is the limit right.

 

[Thunder Head]

Its too long. All that pressure makes the gobblers too smart and it cuts into my fishing time.

The first year I hunted in Kentucky I thought man these birds are dumb!!! They have a one month season.

 

[GTHunter007]

This isn't whitetails where the doe days limit impact on turkey #s. If you took human hunters out of the equation I would wager turkey populations would continue on the same slope they are on now. The # of turkeys lost in a 12 month comparison don't even compare to the #s hunters take. You want to look at turkey populations declining you don't have to look at the turkey hunter per say as much as you need to look at MAN in general. Deforestation, agricultural practices and timber management have a greater affect on turkey numbers than anyone wants to admit.

I'd wager less than 10% of baby turkeys see maturity...sex does not matter. Hunters killing males is NOT the main impact. Therefor 50 days of hunting season is NOT to blame.

 

[antharper]

I think the season is just rt , it usually takes me all 50 days to get my limit and my daughters and I'm sure most hunters are different but if I get lucky and have a good streak I will find a kid that needs to be in the woods

 

[GLS]

I don't think we will ever be able to quantify the number of hunters who exceed the 3 bird limit. Killing turkeys sure doesn't increase the number of birds. In that regard, Louisiana is considering a later season as a high percentage of hens aren't nesting before April 9th as determined by radio collaring over a 100 hens meaning the bulk of nesting is during the season which isn't ideal. This is based on biological studies. They don't expect the kill numbers to go down, but expect more nests as a result.
http://www.nola.com/outdoors/index.ssf/2017/01/commission_considering_major_c.html

 

[Kawaliga]

Market hunters shooting turkeys over a trench filled with corn had a lot to do with turkeys almost being wiped out. It's my opinion that pine plantations on a short rotation covering the southeast doesn't help matters any.

 

[antharper]

Market hunters shooting turkeys over a trench filled with corn had a lot to do with turkeys almost being wiped out. It's my opinion that pine plantations on a short rotation covering the southeast doesn't help matters any.

And I can hear 100 yr old white oaks hitting the ground as I type this !

 

[sea trout]

Is Georgia's turkey season too long?
Are we stressing the birds beyond their capacity to recover and reproduce and raise their young sucessfully?
Are too many hunters in the woods too much during the breeding and hatching season?

No
No
Yes....but I admit I'm greedy. I wish for less turkey hunters like there was 20 years ago but I don't want to exclude myself from turkey hunting so I'm greedy and I know thats wrong.

 

[sea trout]

This year I think I'm going to get my 3 turkeys for piggly wiggly from the frozen meat department asle 12.
Let's all do this and save time & money & the wild turkey.
If you must have wild turkey, get it in the likker bottle.

Are you gonna take pictures with those for your turkey contest?
How will we know if it's a tom or a jake?

 

[antharper]

Are you gonna take pictures with those for your turkey contest?
How will we know if it's a tom or a jake?

Have u seen some of the turkey's he's entered in the past with only a couple feathers left on them , they could of passed for a grocery store turkey !!

 

[Timber1]

This isn't whitetails where the doe days limit impact on turkey #s. If you took human hunters out of the equation I would wager turkey populations would continue on the same slope they are on now. The # of turkeys lost in a 12 month comparison don't even compare to the #s hunters take. You want to look at turkey populations declining you don't have to look at the turkey hunter per say as much as you need to look at MAN in general. Deforestation, agricultural practices and timber management have a greater affect on turkey numbers than anyone wants to admit.

I'd wager less than 10% of baby turkeys see maturity...sex does not matter. Hunters killing males is NOT the main impact. Therefor 50 days of hunting season is NOT to blame.

It is not the hunting or killing im talking about. It is the 50 days of intrusion on hens while they are trying mate, nest, hatch, and rear their young to survival size those first few weeks. Are we stressing them out to the point where they are not able to do that?
I know I have scared hens off purposely many times. If they didnt go far enough the first time i would scare them some more.
Thats kind of an extreme example of what i am getting at.

 

[Jellyhead Joe]

I don't think the length of the season is stressing the hens so that they can't rear a hatch of poults. I am fortunate to get to hunt quiet a bit during the season and maybe a two or three hunts out of the year I'll call in a hen. Also, it is very rare that I flush a hen off of her nest. During the 70s and 80s there wasn't as many hunters in the woods, but we also didn't have coyotes or hawks. I know of farms and industrial parks that use to hold healthy turkey populations back ten years ago. No one was allowed to hunt these areas, but today their turkey populations are almost nonexistent. I agree that hunting turkeys isn't helping the population to grow. However, there is a lot of factors that attribute to the declining populations we've been seeing over the ten years.

 

[kmckinnie]

To tell the truth. Where I hunt there's 1000s of acres no one turkey hunts. Most the clubs are from Fla and they don't come up to hunt a turkey. Them hens where I'm at are thick in population.
I see them 12 at the time everywhere. Long beards walking behind them. I see 8 & 10 gobblers together before they break up in the spring. You can ride up & down the roads in the spring and have got to stop cause he's strutting in the road.
When the momma hens hatch its best to stay out the woods. Them mean jokers will attack u if u get close to them poults.
I don't like getting hen beat up so I quit hunting about mid April.
Heck a lot of times I kill all 3 toms in one day. Of course when u have QTM practice. It pays off.

 

[kmckinnie]

Shorten the season. Especially In the north zone. They need a break up there.

 

[sea trout]

Shorten the season. Especially In the north zone. They need a break up there.

 

[antharper]

To tell the truth. Where I hunt there's 1000s of acres no one turkey hunts. Most the clubs are from Fla and they don't come up to hunt a turkey. Them hens where I'm at are thick in population.
I see them 12 at the time everywhere. Long beards walking behind them. I see 8 & 10 gobblers together before they break up in the spring. You can ride up & down the roads in the spring and have got to stop cause he's strutting in the road.
When the momma hens hatch its best to stay out the woods. Them mean jokers will attack u if u get close to them poults.
I don't like getting hen beat up so I quit hunting about mid April.
Heck a lot of times I kill all 3 toms in one day. Of course when u have QTM practice. It pays off.

Man am I glad I got a invite to hunt your place !!!

 

[kmckinnie]

Man am I glad I got a invite to hunt your place !!!

Just watch out for them mamma hens. They will whip up on you in a heart beat.