Possible turkey units?

[Buzzard Breath]

It sounds like TWRA is exploring the possibility of split the state into turkey units.

https://www.wbir.com/amp/article/ne...anges/51-2c04daff-c53c-4245-998a-cea19b107e8b

 

[Boll Weevil]

It sounds like TWRA is exploring the possibility of split the state into turkey units.

I like it!!

 

[Setterman]

Whatever they do they'll jack it up. It's proven Twra really cannot manage anything smartly or well

 

[knightrider]

their only ten years to late

 

[PickettSFHunter]

Been needed for a long time

 

[SEC]

their only ten years to late

I'd say 20 years behind. Classic twra move. Hear 2 birds here at my house. Drive 2.5 hrs east and hear 12………same regulations.

 

[scn]

Total joke as long as they continue to use the online checkin.

Having turkey units WILL NOT work.

 

[deerfever]

Sounds like it could cause problems for certain areas, wouldn't people just flood the counties that open earlier or have higher bag limits? Maybe I am reading it wrong or something. I will wait for further details to form an opinion but skeptical at this point that it would help manage regions. Maybe private opens at one point and public at another?

 

[Southern Sportsman]

Maybe private opens at one point and public at another?

They have been doing this for several years on West TN WMAs.

 

[Southern Sportsman]

Total joke as long as they continue to use the online checkin.

Having turkey units WILL NOT work.

I can think of several issues that will have to be addressed (if possible), but I'm curious why you think it can't work.

I ask because I genuinely respect your opinion on the subject. And to be clear, I'm not arguing that it will work, but I don't think the current regs are particularly effective either. Several states manage turkeys by regional unit (e.g., AL, AR, FL, SC). Why do you think it won't work in TN?

 

[scn]

IMO, the reason it WILL NOT WORK is because of the current check in procedures. If I can check a bird in by phone or computer from my vehicle or home, it won't matter if my county is open or if I have already taken my county limit. I can pick any county in the state during my check in. It is nice in theory, and gives biologists "work" and job security to determine those regs, but, it is totally nonenforceable.

It will be abused.

I will be lobbying against such a change.

 

[bowhunterfanatic]

IMO, the reason it WILL NOT WORK is because of the current check in procedures. If I can check a bird in by phone or computer from my vehicle or home, it won't matter if my county is open or if I have already taken my county limit. I can pick any county in the state during my check in. It is nice in theory, and gives biologists "work" and job security to determine those regs, but, it is totally nonenforceable.

It will be abused.

I will be lobbying against such a change.

I can definitely see this. Not that it will really affect me any being in west TN, but I guarantee you if we get to open a week or two earlier that people in middle and east TN will be hunting at the same time as me and just checking the birds in online in a west TN county. As much as I was against the pushing back of the season I have to admit it probably helped to make me more successful last year and I'm perfectly fine with it going forward.

 

[Boll Weevil]

Lawbreakers will break the law regardless of what laws are applied or enforced. In my mind, management by zone is in the interest of the resource and any attempt to better manage the wildlife resource is a positive.

Whether managed by zones or not, lawbreakers won't change their behavior.

 

[scn]

Lawbreakers will break the law regardless of what laws are applied or enforced. In my mind, management by zone is in the interest of the resource and any attempt to better manage the wildlife resource is a positive.

Whether managed by zones or not, lawbreakers won't change their behavior.

100% correct on the violations.

But, there is no reason to make it very easy for them to do so. This proposal has a high potential to cause serious law enforcement issues without much gain on the other side. When you know something is going to be a problem, it doesn't make a lot of sense to move forward with it.

It sounds like a job security deal for TWRA biologists.

 

[TheLBLman]

IMO, the reason it WILL NOT WORK is because of the current check in procedures. If I can check a bird in by phone or computer from my vehicle or home, it won't matter if my county is open or if I have already taken my county limit. I can pick any county in the state during my check in. It is nice in theory, and gives biologists "work" and job security to determine those regs, but, it is toootally non-enforceable.

Yes, micro-managing by county, even portions of counties, it's absolutely a terrific idea in theory.

It's just that in reality, many humans are dishonest & will cheat, and that's much of the problem already, in that as more do so with impunity, a growing number then feel entitled to do the same.

Any rules or laws that are not being enforced, get abused & ignored.
Look at how shop-lifting has sky-rocketed nationwide in such a short period of time.

 

[TheLBLman]

It's a shame we can't "manage" with better localized precision, since we do have great capabilities to micro-manage for superior results at the county level & below, but it's too complicated and too non-enforceable.

A better plan is simple, no confusion, highly enforced.
Sadly, this means more conservative statewide bag limits and shorter statewide seasons.
But it does not mean more "rules" or "laws". Keep it simple.

Maybe if TWRA had opted for less liberal bag limits & season lengths (especially opening so early as to draw in large numbers of non-resident turkey killers), we wouldn't have had to now have a 2-bird limit, shorter season, and no "bonus" birds on quota WMA hunts.

Never mind that, yes, some areas could withstand very high bag limits and long seasons. But we did try that statewide for years, as the turkey population plummeted in long-established turkey hunting counties, mainly only thriving where there had not been and still is not much turkey hunting.

 

[Andy S.]

From polling my groups of hunting friends and acquaintances, I suspect this will have a cult like following (support). Many of them have requested this for years in the season setting comment period. Time will tell how this pans out.

 

[TheLBLman]

One more thing:

With greatly increased "complication" & "confusion" of regs & laws, the net outcome is often opposite what the "leaders" project.

Think about how democrat politicians are always making everything about gun ownership & use more complicated & confusing, under the guise of reducing crime. Does just the opposite, mainly just punishing the honest law-abiding citizens, while helping the dishonest commit more crimes.

Complicated turkey regs, especially if different via counties, would be akin to traveling from TN to Illinois, in terms of the gun law confusion & complication whereby Illinois could impose on you fines & imprisonment for accidently violating some bureaucrat's edicts, when all you wanted to do was safely travel.

 

[TheLBLman]

At present, one of the biggest things going against the future of "sport" hunting (which is what most turkey & deer hunting have been the past few decades), i.e. hunting as one of many "sports", is overly complicated & confusing game laws.

Younger people, who might otherwise be interested in trying, too often quickly lose that idea as they become confused by unnecessarily complicated regs, as many initially interested are in fact honest, but can be so afraid of accidentally becoming a law-breaker, they give up before they start. I've also seen many older hunters quit hunting, in large part over the same fears of accidently breaking a game law.

It's easy to just feel, well that's great for those of us still hunting, as fewer hunters means more game for me. But what happens when the non-hunting public simply outlaws most "sport" hunting? THAT is already happening in many areas, as government sharp-shooters are replacing hunters to control deer over-populations.

 

[Boll Weevil]

County, start date, end date, public/private, daily limit, season limit. I'm not the sharpest fellow on the planet but how complicated could the potential new regs be to understand?

Now whether folks choose to abide them is another concern altogether but the term "complicated" just doesn't come to mind.

 

[TheLBLman]

I suspect this will have a cult like following (support). Many of them have requested this for years in the season setting comment period. Time will tell how this pans out.

I agree with you, Andy.
Count me personally as one of those who for years has asked for better turkey management.
But "better" does not mean more confusing & complicated.

For years, I thought, from a game-law perspective, the main thing needing changed was to open our statewide season a week or two later, and have a statewide limit of LESS than 4.

To actually work well, statewide, it needs to be simple.
IMO, where we're at right now, with the season opening later than it did,
with the bag limit going from 4 to 2 birds, we're likely ok, and don't need any new major reg changes.

Now, nothing to do with TWRA or turkey regs, we turkey hunters could do a better job in enhancing the resource by doing simple things like trapping raccoons and improving habitat.

 

[deerfever]

I was in another state last year on a WMA for a juvenile turkey hunt with my son. Same deal different zones, public/ private different dates. As we drove down a road two fellows walking stopped us and ask us if you could drive as I told them yes , just look at you map it shows what roads are open. I quickly recognized these guys both with guns were way over 15. I said to them you realize this is a juvenile hunt? One of them quickly with a puzzled look says this is zone 1 or whatever, yes but it's only open on private lands this WMA is juvenile this weekend . He then replied we are 16 , yes I replied but in this state juvenile ends at 15. Lol, needless to say as we came back truck was gone and the 16 year old whose phone had his wedding photo as a screen saver and his buddy were gone. Yep , both were from TN! Lol, sometimes you can over complicate things but no excuse for not knowing the regulations, especially out of state.

 

[Andy S.]

............ but no excuse for not knowing the regulations, especially out of state.

Concur. Along those lines, you simply cannot regulate carelessness and stupidity.

 

[deerhunter10]

Twra will screw it up. all the time, money and resources going in to study and helping the turkeys this is the best they can come up with?

 

[tnanh]

Total joke as long as they continue to use the online checkin.

Having turkey units WILL NOT work.

People who cheat with online check in will definitely cheat if they have to drive their sorry butts to a checking station. I do understand the argument about them lying about which county they killed an animal in but a liar is going to lie and cheat either way.

 

[megalomaniac]

I just don't see how units would help, honestly (other than potentially opening up season in west TN early March, but keeping rest of state with mid April opening dates to better coincide with nest initiation dates).

The population explosion/ crashes are often not county wide, but rather extremely localized. There are many spots just LOADED with turkeys and could sustain a 4 bird harvest for a few years... but drive just a few miles down the road in the same county and there are virtually ZERO birds (on places that used to have plenty) and any kills by hunters is detrimental to any chance of a population recovery in the future.

IMO, the biggest single change the 'turkey biologists' could push for to give them something to micromanage would be to alter season limits and close fall season hunting in years following poor poult recruitment. Have a great hatch with 4 pph in August, have a more liberal limit 2y later. Have an abysmal hatch, cut the limit the following year and eliminate fall hunting.

 

[th88]

Anxious to see what they do in regards to public lands. If they don't open at a standardized date, pressure could get even worse on some areas.

 

[Kelljp]

Looks like the closest TWRA public meeting to me next week is in Morristown (2hour drive). Be nice if it were closer. Would like to talk to someone rather than get confused with the website. Maybe offer Zoom meeting invites for public? If you can't ask questions before they change it than what they come up with is there for next season. Looks like the regional commissioners would hold some more localized meetings before they meet in the 4 state public meetings.

 

[Rem7600]

I think they need to leave it alone. The place I've been turkey hunting the past 12 years has been a roller coaster as far as turkey population. The first year I counted 98 birds in one field the next year less than 50. 2 years later they were getting close to 100 again. I think the turkey population can fall off or bounce back really quickly.

Like scn said with the current check in procedure it'll never work doing regions. If they do that they are just trusting you to be honest and there's way more dishonest people. I'm sure they will do this for turkey season, they do for deer and it ain't no different. When you check a deer in you can say any county you want, if your willing to risk some trouble if caught.

For me I think it's too easy to just read the regs book and do what it says,I think it's more work fighting and bucking the system than not

 

[Rem7600]

I don't even like listening to them try not to hijack here.... Catoosa deer went from 3 bonus bucks to 1 not a bonus buck and same doe limit. I asked them about it they say harvest numbers being down is why BS. Keep killing the does that'll bring em up. They are idiots. More guys on here know way more than they do