Telecheck Results 2019 *Final Numbers posted page 4

[Mark K]

I can’t speak for other WMA’s but our local is doing everything you mentioned except the plots. Really don’t care about that with all the habitat management they’re doing. The native browse will come back and everything will prosper. The amount of quail I’m hearing now is testament that it’s working.

 

[Mark K]

Last day to get those birds checked in!!

 

[antharper]

I can’t speak for other WMA’s but our local is doing everything you mentioned except the plots. Really don’t care about that with all the habitat management they’re doing. The native browse will come back and everything will prosper. The amount of quail I’m hearing now is testament that it’s working.

Mark I agree , my local Wma is well taken care of , I don’t think they do enough if any predator control, I’m gonna try and do my part of that the next couple of weeks , but West Point wma looks like a working south ga quail plantation with plenty of wildlife

 

[Turkeytider]

To tell the truth, I'm beginning to wonder if we wouldn't have much of a quail population problem if we just managed land a little better. Coyotes or no coyotes.

 

[Mark K]

To tell the truth, I'm beginning to wonder if we wouldn't have much of a quail population problem if we just managed land a little better. Coyotes or no coyotes.

I was told by land managers that if you manage for quail then everything else prospers as well. Seems to be working on the lands I frequent.

 

[Gut_Pile]

Habitat is #1, period

Predators are more effective when they have a smaller area to hunt.

 

[Turkeytider]

Habitat is #1, period

Predators are more effective when they have a smaller area to hunt.

Not saying predator control isn't beneficial by any means, but the above is the truth and the key, IMO.

 

[Ihunt]

No. Last Summer/Fall I had a healthy population of Turkeys verified by multiple trail camera pics and visual sightings. The coyotes started moving in late Fall of last year. Two weeks ago I found the remains of a hen carcass. I have heard precisely 2 gobblers gobble the entire season - one on opening day and the other two weeks ago. Other than that the woods have been silent. There are no signs of dusting beds or scratching in the hardwoods looking for grubs.

My cameras show deer moving into foodplots, grazing for a while, then they alert and look in the same direction and the next group of pictures is coyotes moving through the plot ten minutes later and the deer are gone.

How do you know the hen didn’t die of disease and the coyotes just ate what they found?

Your experience mimics mine in having them then boom...gone!
That’s why I convinced it’s disease. Coyotes, as slick as they are, can not wipe out a population in one year. Disease can.

 

[Wayne D Davis]

I have a cousin that use to be in Forestry I think 18 yrs. He now is a wildlife tech with DNR. They work hard , Im witness to the fact. Improving roads, plots, control burns, pulling jaws(on a check-in he'll pull over 100 jaws bones himself) and on and on. My wmas look great and full of game because of the habitat. Im thankful for all that goes into it. Hoping to get 5 or 6 hunts in after the hogs and yotes these next couple weeks. Had to work the last day of turkey because I been slackin past couple months. Needed the rest anyways...hahaha

 

[kmckinnie]

I got quail. They have plenty of brair thickets to live in. They littler and can run around in there.

 

[Gut_Pile]

Final Numbers

11,521 turkeys checked in. That's an average of 205 turkeys per day.

Opening day had the highest number of kills with 1,467 and accounted for 12.7% of the total harvest.

2019 comes in as the second highest harvest reported since telecheck started in 2016.

 

[Mark K]

So we do have turkeys after all!!

 

[Arrow3]

So we do have turkeys after all!!

Yeah theres a few turkeys here and there but I'd say the population is down 75% in my county from where it was in the mid 90s.

 

[tonyrittenhouse]

2019 comes in as the second highest harvest reported since telecheck started in 2016.
Yea, but it is no were close to the 30,000 that they were estimating .

 

[Turkeytider]

I have to wonder how the number of hunters stacked up . I also wonder if the State, at least in part, bases its harvest estimate ( 30 K ) on estimated/anticipated hunter numbers as well as bird population numbers.

 

[Gut_Pile]

2019 comes in as the second highest harvest reported since telecheck started in 2016.
Yea, but it is no were close to the 30,000 that they were estimating .

Two totally different numbers. The "estimated harvest" hasn't been at 30,000 is about 5 years or so. Last year it was the second lowest it's ever been at 17,500

 

[Mark K]

Yeah theres a few turkeys here and there but I'd say the population is down 75% in my county from where it was in the mid 90s.

And you probably have 75% more hunters as well.
I didn’t start turkey hunting until 2000. When I started, my local WMA was lit up with birds. After a few years the numbers (gobbles heard) started declining. But, over the past couple of years it’s back to where it was when I first started. I know of 7 other gobblers in one extremely small area I hunted that made it through the season. I believe that hurricane saved more birds from death than anything else down here in certain areas. I saw more strutting and henned up birds the last week of season than I did the first few weeks combined.

 

[antharper]

Thanks gut-pile for doing this all season !

 

[Gut_Pile]

I was told by land managers that if you manage for quail then everything else prospers as well. Seems to be working on the lands I frequent.

I would agree with this 95% of the time. Oddly enough the best quail place I have never stepped foot on, had very few turkeys. Just simply didn’t have enough water for the turkeys to flourish.

 

[Timber1]

Here are 4 that made it thru the season.
May 21@ 630am I almost hit them on my way to work.