Is 50 day season too much for the birds

[kmckinnie]

I don't think many hunt after a few weeks. Most hunt the opening weeks. Then fish. Most are not diehards.

 

[antharper]

I don't think many hunt after a few weeks. Most hunt the opening weeks. Then fish. Most are not diehards.

I hunt til the last day , if I done got my freezer full , I find me a kid or some pour soul that can't kill a turkey !

 

[kmckinnie]

I hunt til the last day , if I done got my freezer full , I find me a kid or some pour soul that can't kill a turkey !

I'm that poor soul, brotha!

 

[deerpoacher1970]

I think we need a 60 day season,that way a working man gets a little time to hunt.

 

[DRBugman85]

I just love to hear a turkey GOBBLE,Most hunter's can't and don't hunt 50 days a season. I can't.And most newbies stop a week are 2 into the season due to being unsuccessful.Diehards hunt when they can.I know turkey hunter's that don't Harvest a 3 bird limit me for 1 and I've chased the Thunder chickens of the Woods for a long time and had very good years and a few that the limit was not taking,not in the last 18 years,I'm blessed to be able to still make it to the woods with the possibility of working a bird in to shotgun range some I let walk some I take. NO BLIND no DECOY him against me that is turkey hunting I was introduced to by a master hunter a long time ago.

 

[Blisterapine]

I just love to hear a turkey GOBBLE,Most hunter's can't and don't hunt 50 days a season. I can't.And most newbies stop a week are 2 into the season due to being unsuccessful.Diehards hunt when they can.I know turkey hunter's that don't Harvest a 3 bird limit me for 1 and I've chased the Thunder chickens of the Woods for a long time and had very good years and a few that the limit was not taking,not in the last 18 years,I'm blessed to be able to still make it to the woods with the possibility of working a bird in to shotgun range some I let walk some I take. NO BLIND no DECOY him against me that is turkey hunting I was introduced to by a master hunter a long time ago.

This,, No blind No decoy. Right on!

 

[Bucky T]

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.

I've only walked up on a handful of nest in my career. Most hunters probably don't even know a hen is laying on her nest nearby most of the time.

GThunter007 pretty much said it. I've also wondered about quite a bit of prescribed burning that has been happening in March the past few years instead of in February.

My son and I made a 2.5hr drive to our southeast Ga club this past weekend. The entire drive was smoke filled. Burns happening everywhere, land being cleared out for ag fields, chicken poop being spread every where..

All I know is I use to see 50 or more turkeys on that round trip 10-5yrs ago.. Now... I bet I've seen maybe 5 turkeys in the same fields I use to see flocks in over the past 3yrs....

Something is happening and it isn't good...

 

[Nicodemus]

I've only walked up on a handful of nest in my career. Most hunters probably don't even know a hen is laying on her nest nearby most of the time.

GThunter007 pretty much said it. I've also wondered about quite a bit of prescribed burning that has been happening in March the past few years instead of in February.

My son and I made a 2.5hr drive to our southeast Ga club this past weekend. The entire drive was smoke filled. Burns happening everywhere, land being cleared out for ag fields, chicken poop being spread every where..

All I know is I use to see 50 or more turkeys on that round trip 10-5yrs ago.. Now... I bet I've seen maybe 5 turkeys in the same fields I use to see flocks in over the past 3yrs....

Something is happening and it isn't good...

I wonder how much damage is being done to turkeys and quail with the spread of chicken litter on fields. I`m feel sure it does them no good. Only time will tell...

 

[sea trout]

I wonder how much damage is being done to turkeys and quail with the spread of chicken litter on fields. I`m feel sure it does them no good. Only time will tell...

I'm wondering this too. Wife n I talk bout how, (in our areas), the ag farm fields birds are the ones disappearing.
The woods/forest birds around us seem to be striving.
I don't know if there's anything to that but it's what we've noticed. And we pay attention.

More people in the woods during nesting I'm sure is worse than less people in the woods during nesting, but I don't think that's an impact. More nest get destroyed by hay equipment and spring bush hogging than man will ever find and disturb in the woods. And that's been going on for decades!
I think the loss of coon hunting enthusiest has upped the varmit population too. More racoons, more possums, more skunks. And they eat turkey eggs. Many people still wanna coon hunt but are discouraged by lack of permission to be on property and complaints.

 

[kevincox]

I've only walked up on a handful of nest in my career. Most hunters probably don't even know a hen is laying on her nest nearby most of the time.

GThunter007 pretty much said it. I've also wondered about quite a bit of prescribed burning that has been happening in March the past few years instead of in February.

My son and I made a 2.5hr drive to our southeast Ga club this past weekend. The entire drive was smoke filled. Burns happening everywhere, land being cleared out for ag fields, chicken poop being spread every where..

All I know is I use to see 50 or more turkeys on that round trip 10-5yrs ago.. Now... I bet I've seen maybe 5 turkeys in the same fields I use to see flocks in over the past 3yrs....

Something is happening and it isn't good...

I saw 2 prescribed burns going on today and in areas where I saw flocks of birds in fields 5 years ago....I do not see any now. And nothing has changed in the habitat in a few of the places.

 

[Throwback]

Turkey hunters almost wiped them off the planet once. Pretty well documented. Look at the numbers. Every year there are more hunters. Every year poult counts go down.

that was subsistence and market hunters not sport hunters---HUGE difference.

 

[lampern]

that was subsistence and market hunters not sport hunters---HUGE difference.

Some folks still do shoot turkeys to eat.

 

[TurkeyManiac]

Every year, the more pigs I see, the less Turkeys are around. On a place I know that was always good for 3-4 gobbling birds a morning. That 250 acres holds nothing but pigs now. I never heard a bird on the property, and never cut even a hen track last year. Go ahead and TRY to convince me there's no correlation...