Harvest total...we're already behind

[DeerCamp]

I just checked kill totals for the state and we're currently a little over 13k vs. almost 18k birds in 2021 with virtually the same number of days the season has been open. A lotta season left nearly 4000 less dead turkeys is not insignificant.

Check your county here if interested. https://hunterstoolbox.gooutdoorstennessee.com/?reportId=187

We just saw our first 2 turkeys on trail cams since the season started today.

Been a rough start for us in Henderson County.

 

[Spurhunter]

Been a rough start for us in Henderson County.

My 420 acre lease in Henderson County has been silent. I've heard some birds gobble in the distance on surrounding properties, but I've heard no birds on my lease and have had no longbeards on camera. We have seen some jakes and hens, but that's it. I've never seen it this bad. The 10 mile stretch of highway between my lease and town has a bunch of pretty fields where you could almost bet on seeing turkeys in years past. I've seen exactly zero this year. If my math is correct our harvest numbers for the youth hunt plus the first 11 days of season are down 31% from last year and 39% from 2020. Granted the weather has been terrible this year.

 

[megalomaniac]

IMO weather has somewhat an effect so far this year. Besides the first 3-4 days the weather has kinda sucked. Super cold and/or super windy or raining. Even I have decided to NOT go a good amount of mornings thus far rather then deal with the weather. This weekend was stupid cold and windy around here. Opening Saturday was like 35mph wind. Foliage is really late this year due to the late snow we had which I assume also has had an impact.

Everyone always blames weather every year. I've hunted every day in TN except last Wed and Thurs. To me weather seemed WAY better this spring so far than most in middle TN. Fri/ Sat were the toughest due to the wind, but birds still gobbled great on the roost (but I was on a farm that I've saved for this past trip and was hunting unpressured birds). Sunday was the most perfect day weather wise and gobbling wise. Monday was awesome before the rain, and Monday afternoon was even better after the rain stopped.

My biggest complaint this season has been how far behind the birds have been socially compared to years past. Winter subflocks are just breaking up, and just now those hens are headed to areas they want to initiate nests (pulling the toms with them). Daytime gobbling was terrible last week, but not due to weather... just because toms followed the hens around strutting all day. Now that they are starting to actually breed, daytime gobbling activity (even if it's just a courtesy or shock gobble) has exploded since Sunday.

Maybe just bad luck, but I haven't been able to stumble into any bachelor 2yos roaming. All the birds we've killed were probably 4yos or older, with a single 3yo (assumed age based on spur length... I know not a perfect correlation).

Also strange that the dominant toms are still tolerating the jake offspring of their hens to stay with the individual flocks. Once breeding really gets underway, the toms will push those jakes out.

 

[REN]

Everyone always blames weather every year. I've hunted every day in TN except last Wed and Thurs. To me weather seemed WAY better this spring so far than most in middle TN. Fri/ Sat were the toughest due to the wind, but birds still gobbled great on the roost (but I was on a farm that I've saved for this past trip and was hunting unpressured birds). Sunday was the most perfect day weather wise and gobbling wise. Monday was awesome before the rain, and Monday afternoon was even better after the rain stopped.

My biggest complaint this season has been how far behind the birds have been socially compared to years past. Winter subflocks are just breaking up, and just now those hens are headed to areas they want to initiate nests (pulling the toms with them). Daytime gobbling was terrible last week, but not due to weather... just because toms followed the hens around strutting all day. Now that they are starting to actually breed, daytime gobbling activity (even if it's just a courtesy or shock gobble) has exploded since Sunday.

Maybe just bad luck, but I haven't been able to stumble into any bachelor 2yos roaming. All the birds we've killed were probably 4yos or older, with a single 3yo (assumed age based on spur length... I know not a perfect correlation).

Also strange that the dominant toms are still tolerating the jake offspring of their hens to stay with the individual flocks. Once breeding really gets underway, the toms will push those jakes out.

To be fair I'm not saying it's THE issue but also the masses are not like you and I that go no matter what. It does have an impact on casuals