If regulation changes don't work to increase turkey populations.........

[Doskil]

Are hunters willing to go back to the previous regulations?

 

[Southern Sportsman]

Do I understand your question — If populations continue to decline, will hunters support going back to killing more turkeys earlier in the breeding cycle?

 

[Doskil]

If the regulations changes prove to be failure, will hunters be willing to acknowledge such and change them back?

 

[Gobble4me757]

No their pride gets in the way of that. I can say without a shadow of doubt we would be in the same place if these regs were never changed. Be interested in if the state had an incentive for trapping and had that going for 3 years where we would be then…

 

[megalomaniac]

If the populations continue to decline.to the point where current hunter harvests are unsustainable, state agencies will be forced to reduce hunter harvest even further to compensate for increased natural mortality and decreased reproduction.

I suspect we will eventually see a 1 or 2 bird limit in another decade and a half. It's possible we will go to a tag allocation/ drawing/ issuance of landowner tags before I die.

Want to kill a Goulds in AZ... you'll understand.

Back in the heyday of turkey population explosion, our TN state biologists expected harvest to plateau at 75,000 kills annually once reintroduction was completed....

 

[Setterman]

I'd say if things continue the way they've been going we will drop to a 2 bird limit at some point and a delay to the season opening with also a shorter season.

 

[poorhunter]

What I don't get is how many still say there's not a problem with turkey populations.

 

[Iglow]

It'll probably go back like it was at the beginning of reintro. 1 maybe 2 and a 30 day season.

 

[Andy S.]

What I don't get is how many still say there's not a problem with turkey populations.

IMO, they are looking at statewide harvest "trend data" over last 20 years, which supports a stable "statewide" population, with that ONE metric. We as hunters want a more localized management tool for our county/regions that we live in, hunt in and have experienced these collapses in. I am all for data, graphs and charts, but without recent boots on the ground knowledge for localized areas, I just cannot accept some of the material being presented based purely on "harvest data" alone. I know we have more hunters and more efficient hunters today than ever before due to all the advancements in technology that requires minimal "hunting" per se. I am excited to see what, if any, useful information will come out of the studies that Roger Shields and team is currently pursuing. At the end of the day, the Agency, hunters, outdoorsmen, and conservationists should support and promote long term sustainability of the resource over anything else.

 

[fairchaser]

For Shelby, Tipton and some other counties along the Mississippi River the limit was cut to two and the season start date pushed by two weeks. I'm just hearing about this change. So I guess changes are afoot. No changes for Fayette and Hardeman counties though.

 

[Andy S.]

For Shelby, Tipton and some other counties along the Mississippi River the limit was cut to two and the season start date pushed by two weeks. I'm just hearing about this change.

MAV unit. It was in place last season.

 

[Boll Weevil]

If TWRA can create a MAV unit why can't they create other units like it? This seems a non-issue to me; why not manage turkeys at a local level? It's done for deer (by unit), rabbits (by species), fish (by species or body of water), bear and elk (by zone) etc. Seems to me for turkeys it also makes sense to consider counties that may be dominated by private vs. public.

Every year they survey the turkey hunting population so why not start logging those survey responses by zip code hunted along with their own research study data? Look how swiftly they responded to CWD in terms of testing, monitoring, creation of a new zone, and amending season/limits. Sweeping almost draconian changes virtually overnight.

This isn't a case of "can't" because of know-how it's a case of "won't" for whatever reason(s).

 

[REN]

on a positive side, if things get as bad as expected then the turkey hunter population will begin to fall :). In todays world of instant gratification there are going to be a lot of newer age hunters that ditch it if they are not seeing or hearing birds after a few hunts.

 

[Bgoodman30]

No their pride gets in the way of that. I can say without a shadow of doubt we would be in the same place if these regs were never changed. Be interested in if the state had an incentive for trapping and had that going for 3 years where we would be then…

100%

 

[Bgoodman30]

on a positive side, if things get as bad as expected then the turkey hunter population will begin to fall :). In todays world of instant gratification there are going to be a lot of newer age hunters that ditch it if they are not seeing or hearing birds after a few hunts.

Well that's what duck hunters thought and its almost like the opposite is true...

 

[REN]

Well that's what duck hunters thought and its almost like the opposite is true...

I think Duck is a bit different. Thats a much more social aspect that some dudes just want to go and sit with buddies all day away from their wives lol. Turkeys require a bit more physical work, especially on public land, and at a time of year that you COULD be doing a lot of other stuff like fishing or yard work.

I may be off there but thats how I see the difference.

 

[Doskil]

If the populations continue to decline.to the point where current hunter harvests are unsustainable, state agencies will be forced to reduce hunter harvest even further to compensate for increased natural mortality and decreased reproduction.

I suspect we will eventually see a 1 or 2 bird limit in another decade and a half. It's possible we will go to a tag allocation/ drawing/ issuance of landowner tags before I die.

Want to kill a Goulds in AZ... you'll understand.

Back in the heyday of turkey population explosion, our TN state biologists expected harvest to plateau at 75,000 kills annually once reintroduction was completed....

Do you really think that is going to happen?

 

[Boll Weevil]

on a positive side, if things get as bad as expected then the turkey hunter population will begin to fall :).

Positive is right; fewer turkey hunters is better in the current climate.

I've said it before in terms of managing a finite wildlife resource, I've never understood the whole "bring more hunters into the ranks." Akin to already commercially overfished waters how would more fishermen be a good thing without some other limiting factor?

 

[waterman]

as it is ,it might as well be a 1 or 2 bird limit for me. :rolleyes:

 

[megalomaniac]

Do you really think that is going to happen?

Nope... not until the population has been eradicated first.

 

[Southern Sportsman]

If TWRA can create a MAV unit why can't they create other units like it? This seems a non-issue to me; why not manage turkeys at a local level? It's done for deer (by unit), rabbits (by species), fish (by species or body of water), bear and elk (by zone) etc. Seems to me for turkeys it also makes sense to consider counties that may be dominated by private vs. public.

Every year they survey the turkey hunting population so why not start logging those survey responses by zip code hunted along with their own research study data? Look how swiftly they responded to CWD in terms of testing, monitoring, creation of a new zone, and amending season/limits. Sweeping almost draconian changes virtually overnight.

This isn't a case of "can't" because of know-how it's a case of "won't" for whatever reason(s).

From what I've heard — from the people who would know — turkey management units will be proposed soon, likely at the May F&WC meeting, to be considered for 2023.

 

[Bgoodman30]

Positive is right; fewer turkey hunters is better in the current climate.

I've said it before in terms of managing a finite wildlife resource, I've never understood the whole "bring more hunters into the ranks." Akin to already commercially overfished waters how would more fishermen be a good thing without some other limiting factor?

Conservation $.. The more folks that really care about the survival of the resource the better. Especially if they have the dollars to put behind it..

 

[timberjack86]

Will twra consider a more proactive approach to predator control? Night time predator hunting? Nah someone could get shot.