I've turkey hunted since the early seventies, many states, volunteered 32 yrs with the NWTF. I remember when we had no birds at all to speak of other than Anderson tully, LBL. Then l watched them slowly expand. Grow. The old sport of Turkey hunting is long gone. Better shells, longer kill ranges, decoys. Fanning. Reaping. Better camo. Pop up blinds. I never thought Tn. Should have had a four bird, six week long, all day season. Look at Missouri, at one time one of the top states, 2 weeks, 2 birds. 1pm cut off. Not anymore. I applaud TWRA for finally making a move, moving the starting date later, reducing the limit. I wish they would have left the closing date as was. I will say this, l had a lease in Dickson county years ago. A dairy farm, nothing to hear 15 gobblers a morning. Nothing to drive over county, see stutters in every field. Within one yr we went from seeing groups of 300 in the fall, to hardly any. Every since, seems all southern states populations are falling. Predation is a big factor, but that's not what had happened in such a short span. There is way more happing than predators, limits, fanning. All of these factors hurt, but something really knocked the populations back , way to fast. I still feel disease is all it could be, to reduce populations that fast. And they havent recovered, add the above factors, it just really hurts.
