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Nebraska proposals

Buzzard Breath

Buzzard Breath

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Location
Maury County
It looks like Nebraska could be cutting back turkey licenses and seasons even more.

Screenshot_20220831-122835_Chrome.jpg



starherald.com

Commissioners to consider changes to wild turkey seasons for 2023

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission will consider recommendations for 2023 wild turkey hunting seasons at its Aug. 31 meeting at Fort Robinson State Park.
starherald.com starherald.com
 
The selfish side of me HATES this. Ive got pieces of private land to hunt around Chadron and its not worth the drive for 1 potential bird. The conservative side of me however agrees that something needs to be done. I hunted that area in 2008, 2009 and 2010 prior to the first fires and it was a turkey hunters paradise. As an example 3 of us went out there, hunted 2 days and killed 8 longbeards. The only reason we didnt kill 9 was because 1 hunter slept in and didnt go the 2nd morning. After the fires the turkey population plummeted and has never recovered.
 
Nebraska Game and Parks suggested some pretty restrictive measures/recommendations to the Commission at a previous meeting (~ May time frame or so), but the Commission essentially told them to reconvene and "do more" to protect the resource (turkey), and present an updated "more restrictive" proposal at August meeting. Anxious to see how things pan out.
 
Andy S. said:
Nebraska Game and Parks suggested some pretty restrictive measures/recommendations to the Commission at a previous meeting (~ May time frame or so), but the Commission essentially told them to reconvene and "do more" to protect the resource (turkey), and present an updated "more restrictive" proposal at August meeting. Anxious to see how things pan out.
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I'm pretty sure that meeting is tonight. We should know something by morning.
 
^^^ If they stayed on track, they should have had that discussion this morning. See agenda for today's Commission meeting. Like you said, the decision should be made by now and available in the meeting minutes soon enough, and likely surface on social media or the web beforehand.

Agenda.JPG
 
The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission approved recommendations for 2023 wild turkey hunting seasons at its Aug. 31 meeting at Fort Robinson State Park near Crawford.

The changes to orders for the 2023 turkey season are:
  • Limit all hunters to two spring permits; during the meeting, commissioners amended the recommendation to allow nonresidents up to two permits.
  • Limit the number of spring permits available to nonresidents to 10,000;
  • Amend the daily bag limit to allow a hunter to harvest no more than one turkey per calendar day during the spring season;
  • Shorten the fall season to Oct. 1-Nov. 30;
  • Limit all hunters to one permit in the fall season;
  • Lower the bag limit to one for all hunters in the fall season;
Nebraska Wild Turkey 2023 Changes
 
Buzzard Breath said:
It looks like Nebraska could be cutting back turkey licenses and seasons even more.

View attachment 147482


starherald.com

Commissioners to consider changes to wild turkey seasons for 2023

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission will consider recommendations for 2023 wild turkey hunting seasons at its Aug. 31 meeting at Fort Robinson State Park.
starherald.com starherald.com
Click to expand...
I hunted Chadron this past spring and spent two and half days finding birds. Definitely not like it was ten years ago. Was planning on going back next year. Guess I better start evaluating my plans.
 
I do like that they've increased the nonresident tags to two. 10,000 permits is still 10,000 permits whether 10,000 people hold them or 5,000 people hold them.
 
I recently watched an episode of Gamekeepers on the importance of not only nesting but brood rearing habitat. Research suggests 2 poults/hen survival to adulthood yields a stable population while 3 or more is expanding...<2 is shrinking.

Assuming 50/50 male/female, reducing bag limits means these states must barely be in a breakeven mode at best. AR for example, going to 1 bird must be in bad, bad shape.
 
I hunted around Chadron last spring, ALL day long for 3 days, lots of miles covered. Never heard a gobble, saw a couple hens, found a couple toms on private which I could never convince to cross the line to public. Now granted, it was the 4th week of the season, so they had already been hammered. In fact, I found 4 kill sites with cut (not plucked) body feathers... so there 'used' to be toms in the areas I hunted. Dont think ive found but 3 hunter kill sites in my other 30+ years of turkey hunting. Was so bad, I bailed and headed to the Black Hills and spent the last 4 days hunting there. Not a lot more birds, but at least I was on gobbling birds every day there (but again, all on private)

As far as the limit reductions... it's all just a 'who knows' experiment to save a dying species. I don't think it will help one bit. Turkeys are screwed.
 
megalomaniac said:
As far as the limit reductions... it's all just a 'who knows' experiment to save a dying species. I don't think it will help one bit. Turkeys are screwed.
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You might be right mega. I've often wondered if we're not watching in realtime...like the decline of quail (from when we were kids). I can remember calling to quail off the back porch, seeing them walk single file thru the yard, and getting the bejeezus scared outta me flushing coveys in the dark while walking to the deer stand. The last GSP bird dog I trained was with pen-raised birds and to the best of my knowledge, she never pointed a wild bird...that was in the early 2000s.
 
megalomaniac said:
I hunted around Chadron last spring, ALL day long for 3 days, lots of miles covered. Never heard a gobble, saw a couple hens, found a couple toms on private which I could never convince to cross the line to public. Now granted, it was the 4th week of the season, so they had already been hammered. In fact, I found 4 kill sites with cut (not plucked) body feathers... so there 'used' to be toms in the areas I hunted. Dont think ive found but 3 hunter kill sites in my other 30+ years of turkey hunting. Was so bad, I bailed and headed to the Black Hills and spent the last 4 days hunting there. Not a lot more birds, but at least I was on gobbling birds every day there (but again, all on private)

As far as the limit reductions... it's all just a 'who knows' experiment to save a dying species. I don't think it will help one bit. Turkeys are screwed.
Click to expand...
Your assessment sounds familiar to what I seen. Not just there but pretty much ever state I hunted (TN) included. Been watching the local flock here in East TN, out of 11 hens I see every few days 3 have poults left. Last count 8 we're still alive. That's why I support the " Turkeys for Tomorrow" organization. I've done give up on NWTF for anything except pretty magizines and banquets. Dr Chamberlain in Georgia is doing some really good work
 
Glad they decided to let NR kill two. This will effectively reduce total NR numbers and probably make them more money. I don't know if they would have sold out of 10,000 turkey permits if the NR limit was just one. Thats a long way for most NR to go for just 1 bird. But they'll sell out now.
 

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