First sighting?

[Iglow]

Wondering, how old were you and what year did you see a wild turkey in Tennessee for the first time? I think it was 1989 and I was 27. It was at AEDC. I'd hunted off and on since 1983 but turkeys were scarce and spotty. The places I had to hunt didn't have turkeys yet.

 

[redblood]

Wondering, how old were you and what year did you see a wild turkey in Tennessee for the first time? I think it was 1989 and I was 27. It was at AEDC. I'd hunted off and on since 1983 but turkeys were scarce and spotty. The places I had to hunt didn't have turkeys yet.

1989 for me. A lone hen walked under me on a beautiful october afternoon in a oak flat. I remember thinking it had to be a domesticate turkey but there wasnt a home for miles

 

[megalomaniac]

Sometime in mid 1980s in Cades cove.

Heard my first gobble in Dickson Co. while turkey hunting in 1988. SAW my first turkey while hunting them in 1992 in Dickson county. Pretty lean years between 1988 and 1992.

 

[Gravey]

92 or 93. I was in college deer hunting at a buddy's farm in Macon county and had one walked under me. Had no idea what that thing sticking out his chest was.

 

[Union Co. Boy]

1988. I was sitting on the ground deer hunting at Catoosa and a lone gobbler walked right up within 10 yards of me. Took me a few seconds watching it approach to figure out what it was!

 

[Turkeychaser]

I remember the first kill. I can't remember the first sighting.

 

[REN]

2000 (was the year I moved here from College lol)

 

[Bell3wv]

The West Virginia DNR released turkeys in the hollow below my folks house in 1982. My dad and I sat up on the hillside on our atvs watching with anticipation for the next spring...in 1987 we shot our first jakes

 

[backyardtndeer]

On our property, I think it was around late 1994 or 1995. True or not I don't know, but the rumor was that the twra released 12 dozen birds somewhere in the area a few years prior.

Despite the coyotes being like roaches, we do have a somewhat decent population, although they usually aren't on our property much in the spring.

 

[Wrangler95]

Saw my first wild turkey in Clay county back in the 1970's!

 

[Iglow]

Saw my first wild turkey in Clay county back in the 1970's!

Late or early 70's? I have a friend that saw his first one in 1978 in Cannon co.

 

[Wrangler95]

Late or early 70's? I have a friend that saw his first one in 1978 in Cannon co.

It was the late 70's,there was a snow on the ground and turkeys were in a picked cornfield close to the road!

 

[woodsman04]

Don't know. My dad loved the wild turkey so much he put me in a clutch and I was brooded by an ole southern ridge hardwoods pure strain wild turkey hen

 

[Soft Talker]

Parents bought the property we live on in the Spring of 1982. I was 11yrs. old the day we came to look at it. There was 2 Longbeards strutting on the cleared flat hill my house now sits on. Yesterday morning I had 2 Longbeards strutting with 13 Hens, in the corner of my top pasture, on that same flat top.

 

[ROVERBOY]

I remember the first kill. I can't remember the first sighting.

Same here. I can't remember first sighting. My first kill was April 1994.

 

[Iglow]

From this small sample size I'd guess the median would be about 1986? 1986 to 2014 (I guess the beginning of the downturn?) is 28 years. Hunting really didn't get good for everybody till about 1999 or 2000? Maybe later, so we only had it for 15 years or so. Could natural conditions change so drastically in 15 years that you go from an exploding, rapidly increasing population to a declining one over such a wide and diverse area?

I wish I knew an accurate timeline of the turkey restoration and openings of counties/areas to hunting in Tennessee? The seasons and bag limits?

 

[Huntaholic]

1984, Catoosa.

 

[Kelljp]

1982, the late Judge Arden Hill (first person I ever knew who was a turkey hunter) and other members of the Carter county hunting club secured 13 wild turkeys from TWRA and released them on the farm beside me.
For the next week sightings of them was the talk of the neighborhood.

 

[PalsPal]

Probably the spring of 83.

We have family property close to Catoosa. My dad and uncle had been hunting them a few years with minimal success, but I had no interest as a high schooler.

He finally talked me into going one morning as a senior. I don't remember hearing any gobbles but we did see 4 or 5 birds. I don't think any were gobblers.

Anyway, he was ecstatic. I was like, "What's the big deal?" and lost interest again until I got out of college.

I went with him again, and we got on one and had a classic battle. Dad ended up breaking him and he walked in and dad got him. I had no chance at shooting as I was shaking like a leaf and had actually lowered my head some because I was afraid that he would see my glasses.

That lit the fire and I was determined to learn on my own.

 

[Iglow]

83 was the first year I went at Cheatham, reading about how to do something and actually doing it are very different things.