Welcome Guest!
They’re cut’n up down here already
- Thread starter buckpasser
- Start date
buckpasser
Senior Member
That’s on my list of things to do at some point, somewhere. GA is trying to make an outlaw of me this year.
Swamprat
Swamprat
Call me silly but it seems every Southern game commission is doing it's best to try and limit access to hunters by later start dates, increased quota areas, bag limit decreases, etc. Like any thing once these are implemented they will never be brought back to before the restrictions were put in place.
Meanwhile ol Johnny granola cruncher can go hiking every day on public with out restriction.
Meanwhile ol Johnny granola cruncher can go hiking every day on public with out restriction.
Duff
Senior Member
I’d be for it, if it fixed the problem. But it won’t
buckpasser
Senior Member
I would be for it, if it were proven in any capacity to do anything worth while. Sadly, the “educated” were feeling superior to any and all common logic on the matter and acted accordingly, proposing change that was ultimately accepted.
It came up last year that I was being too harsh on Ms Emily. I’m being more respectful now, but would love for her to reassess this situation and possibly even propose a change back in the right direction at some point soon.
In fairness, I was and still am okay with reduced and single kill daily bag limit to offer more hunters an opportunity. The season date is very much anti-hunter opportunity though.
buckpasser
Senior Member
One more soap box rant. They don’t even have accurate peak incubation dates for all areas of the state. Think about that! How do you know when and where seasons should fall for the turkey doc’s nonsensical theory when you don’t have complete data???
I had both Emily and the GA NWTF biologist Ricky tell me there wasn’t much difference in peak incubation from N-S GA. When I offered both of them the chance to come make an assessment on the property I manage in Brooks county, for actual (conflicting) data, there was no effort made. When I openly questioned (disagreed with) their responses about incubation dates it seemed we were living in different worlds.
A simple look at the poult report thread here gives a great idea of the N to S gradient, but it’s still being ignored…
Good night.
I had both Emily and the GA NWTF biologist Ricky tell me there wasn’t much difference in peak incubation from N-S GA. When I offered both of them the chance to come make an assessment on the property I manage in Brooks county, for actual (conflicting) data, there was no effort made. When I openly questioned (disagreed with) their responses about incubation dates it seemed we were living in different worlds.
A simple look at the poult report thread here gives a great idea of the N to S gradient, but it’s still being ignored…
Good night.
jNick
Senior Member
Seems like last year quite a few on here were saying how low the turkey numbers were and that the gobblers were getting shot before they could breed out the hens.
buckpasser
Senior Member
They all disappeared. They were stupid.
Swamprat
Swamprat
Yep on the incubation dates especially when on a ag field you can see two hens an their brood flocked up and one brood will be twice the size as the other poults, then go down the road half mile and see some poults the size of softballs. I guess their idea of peak incubation is the span of a month or more.
What ticks me off more is when a landowner does a late season burn and they or a biologist will say, don't worry the hen will renest. Yea, great but you just put them behind a month or two from the main spring greenup.
I get that sometimes a late burn was just how the cards were dealt but still think how crud the practice is.
buckpasser
Senior Member
Agreed. I have a March 7th cutoff on all rx fire on the place. That’s because there are confirmed eggs on the ground by the 14th every year here. The state COULD address this issue in a public information advisory sort of way, but instead pursue fictional solutions to a problem of unknown dimension, while denying that late burns have a negative impact at all. Instead, also implying that a late burn is much better than no burn at all in the grand scheme of things. Is it?
Swamprat
Swamprat
If a property is well managed and has a rotational burn schedule then missing one year on a block is no big deal if it comes to late season burn IMO since those properties have probably better nesting habitat to begin with.
The landowner that hasn't burned in 5-7 or more years and has pockets of marginal habitat for nesting is doing more harm than good when they do a late season burn.
I am not that really far from you as a crow flies (Washington County, FL - Brooks County, GA) so I am just outside the quail belt but have spent alot of time working on properties on the FL side in those areas such as Gadsden, Leon, Jefferson along the GA border where they manage property for all game in a correct manner.
Around me, most burn just for the benefit of deer and timber management and forgo other species impacts.
The landowner that hasn't burned in 5-7 or more years and has pockets of marginal habitat for nesting is doing more harm than good when they do a late season burn.
I am not that really far from you as a crow flies (Washington County, FL - Brooks County, GA) so I am just outside the quail belt but have spent alot of time working on properties on the FL side in those areas such as Gadsden, Leon, Jefferson along the GA border where they manage property for all game in a correct manner.
Around me, most burn just for the benefit of deer and timber management and forgo other species impacts.
Glenn
Senior Member
You hit the nail on the head!
I can tell you that the FWC here in Florida could care less about hunting opportunities. The amount of bird watching, manatee feeding, non-hunters working for them is unreal and I’ve just had a 3-week crash course behind the scenes with them.
Last edited:
buckshed
Senior Member
Did a scouting trip on past Sunday evening to an area where birds have roosted in the past near a creek bottom, and saw 5 longboards moving through with 8 hens. Never seen that many in that area. Hearing other reports in my area that people seeing good amount of turkeys, my county has been way down in Turkey harvest past few years. I know people in the area have been trapping predators, so maybe it's helping
Baroque Brass
Senior Member
I had two hens heading towards the feeder with a Tom in hot pursuit. Ol Tom was looking for love and strutting his stuff but the girls were more interested in the corn. They were eating, he was strutting around and being ignored. He finally gave up and starting eating. Kinda reminds me of my efforts to pick up girls years ago.
The turkey rut is on , pretty much state wide !
buckpasser
Senior Member
I think we may have constitutional rights to start the season at the old original date structure. I think “pursuit of happiness” is being infringed upon HEAVILY, with no biological explanation, no population charting, no data, no proven theory, no nothing! Liberty!
blackbear
Senior Member
Stevie Ray
Senior Member
I saw one in Illinois last summer, a little hard to see in these pics but it was definitely a white turkey, in a bean field next to some woods.
jNick
Senior Member
Now that’s how to scout!
Stevie Ray
Senior Member
I have spotted some huge deer around that part of the country from that vantage point ... and I do mean huge!
