drhunter1
Senior Member
Gentleman. The harvest data is out there. I'm not very net savvy and even I know where to look. I probably shouldn't have shared the name of the property but I was trying to incite conversation about a problem I'm seeing in my area of the state. I never gave enough info to help anyone figure out anything imo. I agree that we live and hunt In a time where the average hunter uses the net for his/ her advantage. That was one of the underlying themes of my original post. That is exactly what every single person on this website is doing. Learning a little. Sharing with friends and neighbors, and always watching for a clue that may benefit my hunting. If the biggest problem here is the fact that I used the name of a piece of property in my post then I guess I am the problem. My concerns are the timber harvest and the hunting pressure that is already on these birds. Add in a few years of low poult numbers and the outcome is staggering.
Exactly right. The ONF is pretty vast. I don't recall seeing you mention which gate you hunted so ignore folks who want to give you a hard time about talking about the ONF. But if someone moves in on you it is more likely because someone else just got likely and stumbled on that particular spot.
IMHO, The bird population if anything is greater than it has been in past years. The fact of the matter is that some years are just better years for hunting. Weather patterns play a big role. I hunted fairly hard the last two years and did not hear one bird gobble. They just didn't gobble. It seemed like every time I had a change to go we had a low pressure system.
Secondly, Turkeys are not static creatures and can move from one area to the next. If there is a bunch of timber cutting going on in an area it will push them around to different areas and out of some. The bottom line is, they aren't around every tree all the time. BF Grant (part of the ONF) is a prime example of that.
Predators like coyotes and raccoons raid nests, push birds around etc. Make them tight lipped. When their populations rise it changes things.
There are a whole host of reasons why the turkeys may or may not make their presence known.
If it were easy, it wouldn't be near as fun. Good luck.