Alabama leading the way

[Setterman]

Just saw Alabama took the first step towards eliminating decoys by making them illegal next year for the first 10 days. It's not where it needs to be, but is at least a start to remove the biggest crutch from hunters that's ever been legal.

Hopefully, this trend takes off and in the future they will be outlawed universally

 

[PickettSFHunter]

Good move.

 

[ImThere]

I'm sure they will sell a special decoy license like they did for baiting deer!!

 

[deerfever]

I had seen they had proposed it but I didn't know if it passed. I didn't read one comment that was negative towards them making decoys and fans illegal for the first 10 days. If you think about it that means the first two weekends ( when most hunt) Alabama no longer has to worry about the dominant breeding toms getting killed by the old fan or gobbler decoy trick, they are now protected from that method. This is something that might could pass here in TN as somewhat of a compromise solution ,For those of us who would like to do away with them and the ones who want to use them. Most seem to think that you could not get rid of them altogether so this is a good solution on their part for now. Glad they did it , maybe it starts a trend.

 

[megalomaniac]

Also reduced limit by 1 and pushed season opener back a week.

Lots of southern states are looking at ways to save the wild turkey.

Gonna be hell on MS birds though. Earliest season opening in the US except for Hawaii and South zone Florida.

 

[Boll Weevil]

Good. I wonder if it's the first step in a plan to wean of plastic turkeys completely?

 

[th88]

Fantastic news! Hopefully other states will follow and maybe, just maybe, it will begin the purge of these new breed turkey hunters who can't kill without decoys/fans and are only in it for the social media likes.

 

[woodsman04]

I saw that.
Also got an email note since I'm also a Alabama license holder. It was clarification of an already existing rule, about fanning being illegal in the first place.
I hope they outlaw them nation wide.

Alabama was anti decoy for a long time. I don't remember the exact year that they legalized them, but I was disappointed when they did. I assume They were one of the last states to legalize decoys.

 

[Setterman]

I saw that.
Also got an email note since I'm also a Alabama license holder. It was clarification of an already existing rule, about fanning being illegal in the first place.
I hope they outlaw them nation wide.

Alabama was anti decoy for a long time. I don't remember the exact year that they legalized them, but I was disappointed when they did. I assume They were one of the last states to legalize decoys.

I think they were legalized around 2006.

 

[timberjack86]

Hope this is sign of things to come. Hopefully Tn will take note and start to wean off plastic turkeys.

 

[TheLBLman]

Also reduced limit by 1 and pushed season opener back a week.

IMO, that will do more to help than anything regarding the decoys.
Sure wish TN would push our statewide season back a week!

 

[woodsman04]

I think they were legalized around 2006.

Something like that, maybe a little earlier.

what's funny is that when they were first legal there I thought it was no big deal. Tennessee already had them legal since who knows when.
What is the most aggravating thing about them is that the people that use them exclusively just to shoot a turkey just because.

I guess it ain't necessarily the decoys that bother me. It's the hunters attitude. And the complete ignorance that it is a way to cheat a bird and lessen his uniqueness to being wary coming against the grain to look for a calling hen.

Also, I'd be on bored with just outlawing any decoy that's a strutter, gobbler, fan, or jake. Hen decoys only, just to give in a little bit to the decoy folks.

 

[Setterman]

Something like that, maybe a little earlier.

what's funny is that when they were first legal there I thought it was no big deal. Tennessee already had them legal since who knows when.
What is the most aggravating thing about them is that the people that use them exclusively just to shoot a turkey just because.

I guess it ain't necessarily the decoys that bother me. It's the hunters attitude. And the complete ignorance that it is a way to cheat a bird and lessen his uniqueness to being wary coming against the grain to look for a calling hen.

Also, I'd be on bored with just outlawing any decoy that's a strutter, gobbler, fan, or jake. Hen decoys only, just to give in a little bit to the decoy folks.

I'm okay with only hen decoys. You're right the decoys are just a symptom of the underlying disease of laziness, inability to hunt, no desire to learn, and just caring about killing.

 

[Hymie3]

I personally do not like or use turkey decoys and detest reaping or any use of a fan.. Sounds like a good step in the right direction. However, I do duck hunt and have always used decoys. Does that seem hypocritical? just thinking out loud....

 

[woodsman04]

I personally do not like or use turkey decoys and detest reaping or any use of a fan.. Sounds like a good step in the right direction. However, I do duck hunt and have always used decoys. Does that seem hypocritical? just thinking out loud....

I don't duck hunt. But isn't the sport of duck hunting calling in ducks and getting them to work correctly and attempt to land in your decoy spread?

I would think that the no fun and un sporting way to duck hunt would be to "sky bust" and just shoot fly by's like on a dove shoot. Of course if your goal is just to kill every duck you can go do so. Same with turkeys. If you want to just kill at all close set up a gobbler decoy in a cow pasture where you see a gobbler and a few hens regularly.

 

[casjoker]

I am not much of a turkey hunter but I have hunted off and on for 15 years or so. The few seasons I put in the effort I have been successful but have never shot more than one bird per season. Of the 6 birds, taken all were using decoys. I have 3, two hens, one jake Walmart cheapos. I would say they work about 25% of the time.

Are they talking about banning the $20 junk as well as the crazy $200+ life-like stuff?

Sounds like the newer expensive decoys make turkey hunting almost idiot proof?

 

[Setterman]

I personally do not like or use turkey decoys and detest reaping or any use of a fan.. Sounds like a good step in the right direction. However, I do duck hunt and have always used decoys. Does that seem hypocritical? just thinking out loud....

The entire premise of duck hunting is to call the birds into your decoy spread. Not comparable iMO

 

[Setterman]

I am not much of a turkey hunter but I have hunted off and on for 15 years or so. The few seasons I put in the effort I have been successful but have never shot more than one bird per season. Of the 6 birds, taken all were using decoys. I have 3, two hens, one jake Walmart cheapos. I would say they work about 25% of the time.

Are they talking about banning the $20 junk as well as the crazy $200+ life-like stuff?

Sounds like the newer expensive decoys make turkey hunting almost idiot proof?

They are talking about all of them, but to your point the strutters, HD jakes, etc are what have turned the tide big time. the Old school cheap foam things look pretty rough where the new high end decoys look alive

however, I could live with hen decoys being legal, but outlaw all male decoys period

 

[Southern Sportsman]

I really wish Alabama's reported turkey kill numbers for the last few years were more reliable so everyone could see how many turkeys are actually killed because of decoys.

 

[Spurhunter]

I really wish Alabama's reported turkey kill numbers for the last few years were more reliable so everyone could see how many turkeys are actually killed because of decoys.

Same for MS.

 

[timberjack86]

IMO, that will do more to help than anything regarding the decoys.
Sure wish TN would push our statewide season back a week!

I'm just not a fan of pushing the season back, I've heard all my life that most hens are bred before the season opens. If true there's no biological reason for pushing it back. Now outlawing male turkey decoys and tents, there's a step in the right direction. There would be alot more gobblers left alive at the end of the season.

 

[Setterman]

I'm just not a fan of pushing the season back, I've heard all my life that most hens are bred before the season opens. If true there's no biological reason for pushing it back. Now outlawing male turkey decoys and tents, there's a step in the right direction. There would be alot more gobblers left alive at the end of the season.

I think with the onslaught of decoys, tents, etc turkey hunters are killing more birds and more birds early which defeats the original premise of hens being bred early.

 

[Andy S.]

Great news for the minimally renewable resource (eastern wild turkey). Maybe we can invite their Conservation Advisory Board and Agency Head to testify at one of our TFWC Meetings. Pushing season back a week, no decoys for 10 days, and reducing the limit should make a difference OVER TIME. Not overnight like so many will jump to point out. Give the turkeys time to respond and react. Thanks for sharing Setterman.

 

[Spurhunter]

I'm just not a fan of pushing the season back, I've heard all my life that most hens are bred before the season opens. If true there's no biological reason for pushing it back.

Michael Chamberlain is a huge advocate of later opening dates to allow hens more time to be bred. He believes mid-April would be ideal.

 

[megalomaniac]

I'm just not a fan of pushing the season back, I've heard all my life that most hens are bred before the season opens. If true there's no biological reason for pushing it back. Now outlawing male turkey decoys and tents, there's a step in the right direction. There would be alot more gobblers left alive at the end of the season.

I'm not really sure where or who started this misconception. Biologically, season is SUPPOSED to start after hens have been bred to minimize impact on reproduction. TN was flying by the seat of their pants when they set season dates back in the 80s.

Remember, 2/3 of the entire seasons kill occurs in the first 10 days (and this was true even before fanning and reaping became so popular) When season opens has the greatest impact on population dynamics and availability (or lack of availability) for males to service the hens.

I can tell you for CERTAIN, based on 1000s of hours observing turkeys on my farms, finding nests, performing necropses on broken eggs to determine the embryological age of the undeveloped poilt within, and observing timing of poults that the vast majority of breeding starts April 7th through 14th, peaking around April 20th. Initiation of nests beginning April 14th, and peaking around April 28th. Sure, there are outliers... a tiny percentage of hens will mate in March and start nests end of March, many more however will mate and initiate nests in mid May.

BUT. I concede this is for a very specific localized area of southern middle TN approx 20 miles. Perhaps all the hens have been bred in other parts of the state by the end of March.... but I suspect not.

Before turkey hunting became popular, coincidentally, the very best hunting was mid April. By mid April, the subflocks had completely broken up and those satellite toms were desperate to find a hen. The very best hunting for long spurred birds was the end of April mid day... when their hens had left them and broken off to lay.

I MUCH prefer to hunt mid April, but with so many males being killed first 10 days of season, it became much harder to just find a gobbler to hunt. I've had to shift my trips up to opening week, because I would rather see, work, and hear birds gobble than kill one.

 

[Andy S.]

This is TWRA's data.

 

[hbg1]

I've been hunting the turkey since the first season opened in my area back in the early 90's. I am 50 years old and neither a poor hunter nor lazy. I personally have no problem with any decoy, period. Someone mentioned they were ok with hens but not male decoys. I don't understand because isn't the goal of both to lure a gobbler into range? In my many years of experience I've had more set ups ruined by decoys than I have had success with them, hence I rarely, rarely use a decoy of any kind. Also it sounds that some are wanting decoys outlawed as to allow more gobblers to survive the season, if that is the case the easiest route would be to reduce the limit. Doesn't make any sense to me to outlaw decoys to reduce the number of birds harvested. Just a few thoughts, don't mean much to anyone but me probably

 

[JCDEERMAN]

Michael Chamberlain is a huge advocate of later opening dates to allow hens more time to be bred. He believes mid-April would be ideal.

Wouldn't it be nice for him to share his thoughts at all the meetings twra and the commission have? I was hoping it would have happened long before now.

 

[Andy S.]

^^ A lot of hunters want full strut decoys banned, especially the first half of season, because that is the ONLY way most hunters (all of us included too), can routinely kill a dominant turkey (1.25"+ spurs) early season that is strutting with a harem of hens. We want the dominant turkey left alone to breed as many hens as possible. The absolute easiest way to kill him early season before leaf out when visibility is the greatest, with zero skill set, is place a strutting decoy in his immediate area where he can see it, and wait for him to charge it to whoop it's tail and run it off. Voila, the dominant bird has been pulled off his harem to protect his turf and hens, and the shooter kills him at 15 yards without ever making a move, making a call, nothing, other than staking a decoy, and shooting straight.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

IMO, that will do more to help than anything regarding the decoys.
Sure wish TN would push our statewide season back a week!

Or if was always the 2nd Saturday in April, no matter what.