Midwest Turkey Decline

Tennessee Deer Sporting & Deer Hunting Community Forum

Help Support TNDeer | Tennessee Deer:

I think it has a lot to do with the fact that the entire world has changed in that products are made out of man made materials nowadays. Nobody uses real fur and animal products any more . Coons,foxes,coyotes,opossums ,feral pigs and every other fur bearing critter gets a pass . I trap on my little slice of heaven and i still find turkey eggs scattered around . Birds of prey play a big role in the decline too.
All we can do is our little part to help with the decline .
 
Chickenrig said:
I think it has a lot to do with the fact that the entire world has changed in that products are made out of man made materials nowadays. Nobody uses real fur and animal products any more . Coons,foxes,coyotes,opossums ,feral pigs and every other fur bearing critter gets a pass . I trap on my little slice of heaven and i still find turkey eggs scattered around . Birds of prey play a big role in the decline too.
All we can do is our little part to help with the decline .
Click to expand...
KILL EM ALL! Let God sort them out.
 
Definitely, hard hunting in the Midwest. I just returned from western Kansas. All of the local hunters we talked to had a lot to say about the population decline. I had one good morning and it paid off.
 

Attachments

  • 13009.jpeg
    13009.jpeg
    595.9 KB
Gotta love social media. It was the best hunter recruitment tool ever. THP and all the others have put so much focus on public land and traveling it's a circus now. It'll never get better overall but it will get worse. Few gobblers survive anymore so a few bad hatches make for a quiet spring. Eventually every state will have a late opener and a 1 maybe 2 bird limit and a draw for nonresidents. The hay days a lot of us experienced in the 80s and 90s will never be seen again. The demand has far exceeded the supply.
 
Chickenrig said:
I think it has a lot to do with the fact that the entire world has changed in that products are made out of man made materials nowadays. Nobody uses real fur and animal products any more . Coons,foxes,coyotes,opossums ,feral pigs and every other fur bearing critter gets a pass . I trap on my little slice of heaven and i still find turkey eggs scattered around . Birds of prey play a big role in the decline too.
All we can do is our little part to help with the decline .
Click to expand...
Don't forget crows!!
I raise heritage turkeys and a few geese that are free range. I turn some turkeys out after I hatch poults and the hens will try to nest, sometimes community nest. But crows will sit and watch for the nest location and even have a call for when they find it. Needless to say but a crow will puncture an egg and carry it off to eat the yellow. They will clean out a nest or reveal its location to a 4 legged predator and then it's over.
 
Things need to go back to the way they were. I well remember the days when if a farmer saw a crow, hawk, owl, coon, possum, etc.... They took care of it with extreme predjudice. I can remember when just seeing a hawk was rare. Now, they are everywhere. Is it a coincidence that back then we had rabbits, quail, grouse, etc.....???????
 
Huntaholic said:
Things need to go back to the way they were. I well remember the days when if a farmer saw a crow, hawk, owl, coon, possum, etc.... They took care of it with extreme predjudice. I can remember when just seeing a hawk was rare. Now, they are everywhere. Is it a coincidence that back then we had rabbits, quail, grouse, etc.....???????
Click to expand...
Hawks are dang near plague status now... 75 years of federal protection has exploded their numbers, but esp in the past decade. There aren't many days I'm in the field and don't hear a hawk squawking.
 
Tn Joe said:
IMO it's has more to do with bad habitat and the increased in the number of turkey hunters than predators.
Click to expand...
Completely agree! There are more turkey hunters now more than ever before that are very successful at killing turkeys.
 
elknturkey said:
Gotta love social media. It was the best hunter recruitment tool ever. THP and all the others have put so much focus on public land and traveling it's a circus now. It'll never get better overall but it will get worse. Few gobblers survive anymore so a few bad hatches make for a quiet spring. Eventually every state will have a late opener and a 1 maybe 2 bird limit and a draw for nonresidents. The hay days a lot of us experienced in the 80s and 90s will never be seen again. The demand has far exceeded the supply.
Click to expand...
100% correct!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top