Dr. Michael Chamberlain - MeatEater Podcast

[woodsman04]

Baiting is overrated in my experience. Turkeys eat everything. The hens go to wherever they feel like they need to nest, not where the corn or grain is.

I'm not going to do either one, but I bet if I started a feeder in January and kept them coming to it until season, I could kill maybe one or two opening weekend, and that's maybe because they may not want to come to the corn.
You give me a gobbler decoy or what not, I could perhaps kill every gobbler I saw the first ten days of the season.


I'm happy that someone with some good knowledge like Dr. Chamberlain has spoke about this.


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[woodsman04]

^^^^ Spot on SS! As I've always said, the BEST turkey hunters/killers rarely stand a chance early season against a dominant gobbler and his harem of hens. Anyone that battled with them pre-decoy days knows this. Throw in a strutter, and voila, the tables are turned and it's not even a challenge. Personally, I think it's as bad or worse for turkey conservation as shooting hens. Remember, at the end of the day/season, you, me and everyone else should want maximum number of hens bred to increase the odds of maximum poults/hen the following August.

Usually from about April the 20-30 is my favorite time.


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[muddyboots]

Personally I love hunting early season. I personally do not use decoys. Only time I do is sometimes with my daughter. It does help her. Now sometimes turkey comes to them. Sometimes they avoid them like the plague. I think the decline is predators and high limit. Jmo. We used to open season last Saturday in March and limit was 2. We had 10 times the birds we do know. Hunting was unreal in those days. I feel sorry for you guys that never experienced that. Jmo

 

[Spurhunter]

Why wildlife management agencies aren't listening to this man is beyond comprehension.

I have a few theories:
A) The easier it is to kill turkeys, the more people will turkey hunt, which equates to more license sales.
B) They don't want to listen to all the crying from the guys that spent $100 on a strutter decoy and can't use it now.
C) Too much money involved. Maybe they don't want to cut into the earnings of the decoy companies?

 

[Boll Weevil]

But I really believe most of the early season kills are over or around bait. Pop up blind over a bait pile kills just as many early season dominant Tom's as strutter decoys

Agree mega. The difference I see is strutters are currently totally perfectly legal..bait ain't. Strutters and fans oughta be outright outlawed. Will the law breakers keep lawbreaking? Yes. Some of the same folks that don't check birds in and stop at 4 in TN.

Will folks with a fan or plastic strutter start looking over their shoulder while toting one through the woods...hopefully yes. Since the late 80s I ain't never seen a man walkin thru the turkey woods with a pocketful of cracked corn. It wasn't altogether uncommon back then and nobody said nothing but needs to be the same kind of stamp down for plastic strutters and fans now.

If this was the law, heck, try it at your own peril. Folks start calling it in and tickets get wrote...my guess is it'll decline. A $100 avian x strutter glitter sprayed deke vs a $500 ticket? No brainer (maybe). $400 buys a whole buncha turkey meats at the piggley wiggley. And just as sporting.

 

[REN]

We've gotten a bit off track but state agencies don't care about company agendas or profits, they do care about license sales and outlawing them won't happen due to the decline in license sales it will cause. Bama outlawed them for a long time but look at them now

 

[Spurhunter]

But I really believe most of the early season kills are over or around bait. Pop up blind over a bait pile kills just as many early season dominant Tom's as strutter decoys

Agree mega.

Maybe I'm naive, or maybe it's my little corner of the world, but I don't see baiting being a big problem with the turkey hunters I interact with in Tennessee. Mississippi is a different story. Baiting seems to be more accepted/ingrained in MS.

 

[MickThompson]

Why wildlife management agencies aren't listening to this man is beyond comprehension.

I have a few theories:
A) The easier it is to kill turkeys, the more people will turkey hunt, which equates to more license sales.
B) They don't want to listen to all the crying from the guys that spent $100 on a strutter decoy and can't use it now.
C) Too much money involved. Maybe they don't want to cut into the earnings of the decoy companies?

D) Agencies have little data on turkey populations besides annual harvest. Turkeys move around a lot and are hard to count. Data drives management and technology advances may well be hiding the decline but there's no easy or affordable way to quantify it.

 

[Spurhunter]

D) Agencies have little data on turkey populations besides annual harvest. Turkeys move around a lot and are hard to count. Data drives management and technology advances may well be hiding the decline but there's no easy or affordable way to quantify it.

We were specifically discussing full strut decoys and fanning and their effects on dominant birds in early season. Not turkey management in general.

As far as management in general, most turkey hunters agree that simple things could be done. We have units for deer because the state is so diverse in habitat, yet the turkey limits in counties with excessive flooding or dramatic declines in population are the same as Maury County and others with booming populations. It's kind of hard to defend that.

 

[drake799]

I would love to see them get rid of reaping. It's made it where even bad hunters are now killing birds Some People aren't even taking calls or wearing camo hunting lol. They just walk behind a decoy all day. And of course if you watch any hunting shows some of the more popular ones seemingly do it all the time

 

[megalomaniac]

I've been following Chamberlain's research for several years. The guy is THE Turkey authority, and I pray states grow the balls to implement the changes necessary to protect our resource.

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[Bgoodman30]

This is the most informative turkey podcast I have ever heard.. Never again will I take an ole longbeard for granted!!

As much as I like getting after them first of April and end of March we have to move the season back a bit! It seems the only conclusive solution in our control.. We can all try to do our part to control predators but that's so much tougher on the macro level.. Also the tidbit about predator swamping was great.

I almost feel bad for turkeys this weekend the weather is perfect and nobody has a thing to do but hammer them.. :smash: I just started to see lone hens and road kill the last couple days... Its just too early to be sustainable.

 

[Bgoodman30]

I would love to see them get rid of reaping. It's made it where even bad hunters are now killing birds Some People aren't even taking calls or wearing camo hunting lol. They just walk behind a decoy all day. And of course if you watch any hunting shows some of the more popular ones seemingly do it all the time

And the idiots that drop off a buddy and trespass to reap a bird.. This has to stop, some find it socially acceptable.. ITS NOT!

 

[Carlos]

Do you guys actually believe everything he's saying here?

I have a hard time believing a lot of it.

 

[Displaced_Vol]

Great podcast. I like the MeatEater podcasts but sometimes I skip a few. I've only got so many hours in the day.
This one had me almost on the edge of my seat the entire time.
It's nice to hear someone like Doc Chamberlain speak because you can tell he really knows his $hit, but doesn't come off as a know it all or out of touch. Really good listen and I am going to find more of his stuff to read.

 

[Southern Sportsman]

Do you guys actually believe everything he's saying here?

I have a hard time believing a lot of it.

Yeah, pretty much. There are few people on earth more qualified. What parts are you having trouble with?

 

[Carlos]

Do you guys actually believe everything he's saying here?

I have a hard time believing a lot of it.

Yeah, pretty much. There are few people on earth more qualified. What parts are you having trouble with?

I just never realized that many turkeys didnt survive their first few weeks, the way the information here shows.

 

[PickettSFHunter]

Some interesting reading with Dr. Chamberlain in it.
https://www.gon.com/hunting/doubled-banded-wma-gobblers

 

[Carlos]

We've seen an increase in harvest without an increase in production," Dr. Chamberlain. "I think we're going to look back at this year and put an asterisk by it and wished we had practiced some self-restraint."

Dr. Chamberlain, who is a fanatic about turkey hunting, has been steadily watching the WRD harvest numbers climb. He doesn't necessarily want to be the alarmist just yet, but he admits that he is fearful for what the future for Georgia turkey hunting holds as a direct result of such a high increase in harvest due largely to COVID-19.

Emily Rushton, WRD's wild turkey program coordinator, reported that as of April 9, public-land harvest is up 53% and private-land harvest is up by 30% compared to this time last year