I wish I could take back in time some of you younger hunters (under 30) to just spend the month of November hunting in TN, say circa 1970. In West TN, quail hunters greatly outnumbered deer hunters.
Even squirrel hunting received more annual hunting hours from more hunters than deer, and that was statewide.
But then, back then, archery deer season ended on Halloween, and there was no muzzleloader deer season segment, so we had 2 or 3 weeks in November exclusively dedicated to small game, like rabbits, quail, ducks, dove and squirrels.
I believe the then more diverse interests in general hunting, not just deer hunting, contributed greatly to making many of us lifetime hunters. Then many of us just transitioned more from small game to big game over time, with almost none of us actually becoming avid hunters via deer hunting.
Today's young hunters might particularly be shocked with all the then interest in the opening days of squirrel, then rabbit & quail. Most avid hunters didn't even deer hunt then, or did it only a weekend or two annually. But wait, have we come full circle in that most of today's licensed deer hunters are now only deer hunting a weekend or two annually, if even that?
I'm afraid what happened to the squirrel hunters is happening to the deer hunters.
They lost interest, and these squirrel hunters have been dying out faster than new squirrel hunters have been recruited to replace them.
And what happened to the quail hunters may be happening to the turkey hunters.
When there became too few quail to hunt, those hunters had nothing to hunt, and just quit.
Seems every other house in West TN used to have a "bird" dog.
My fear is whatever happened to bobwhite quail is also happening to our wild turkey.