caught me off guard. Im fine with lower limit. Id be fine with no bearded hen- wouldnt shoot one anyway. id be fine no jakes being harvest. Id be fine with no decoys. But to delay the opener 2 weeks? early april is a magical time. woods just starting to green up- nature in all her splendor on display. Is this their deterrent for all the youtube turkey slam state skippers? if so great, but make the restrictions forpublic land only. I dont see why a have to pee of the back porch on april 5th listening to turkeys to fire off on land I own and i can hunt them because some urban traveling hunter from georgia or ohio want to kill a turkey at Yanahli or williamsport. I dont understand.
Turkey season changes....
- Thread starter redblood
- Start date
I tend to agree but have heard from folks who know more than me that changing the dates may help more hens get bred....I don't know if that's true or not?
I hated to see the change in dates too though, at least where I hunt, adding the 2 weeks towards the end of May was absolutely pointless!
I hated to see the change in dates too though, at least where I hunt, adding the 2 weeks towards the end of May was absolutely pointless!
Boll Weevil
Well-Known Member
100% not a fan of the changes...not everyone is turkeyless (especially landowners that took management matters into their own hands years ago).
Does part of your management include trapping?
Boll Weevil
Well-Known Member
Yes indeed; nest raiders and fur bearers.
It will be interesting to see the impact it has on birds in 4-5 years. I may be in the minority but I like the later opening dates. Not only to help dominate birds breed without being decoyed to death. Which I'm not 100% sure if the first two weeks is the "breeding time" but it also helps with all the yahoos coming from out of state on the opening weekend cause hopefully they will not want to mess with it after greenup. One of the biggest issues is nest raiders. Hardly anyone coon hunts or traps anymore. I'm glad they allow trapping year round now for coons. I've been putting it to good work.
Gobble4me757
Well-Known Member
Screw these changes. Once you let a theory that hasn't been proven change things there is no going back. I'm all for helping the turkeys but neither is the answer. Nest predator removal and habitat improvement are the only two things with nest predator removal being the only studied and proven way to increase the number of eggs that survive. This, increasing the numbers of poults and this turkeys in general.
100% for the changes. I just wish they had happened 10 yrs ago.
Nest predation is a major issue no doubt. I see no practical way that it can be addressed on a statewide level.
Nest predation is a major issue no doubt. I see no practical way that it can be addressed on a statewide level.
It doesn't make sense to me to delay the opener on public land but not allow trapping year round? We have large areas of national forest that used to hold lots of turkeys until people quit trapping. Every year there's less and less turkeys.
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
After 30 plus years of turkey hunting in middle TN (several seasons of hunting 30 plus days during the entire 6 week season), the absolute BEST week to call toms in to the gun has been the 3rd weekend of the season (mid April). Multiple hens are breaking off from the flocks midday to lay, satellite birds are getting desperate to participate in breeding, and birds are more evenly distributed throughout the landscape. The problem has always been that 2/3 of the entire seasons kill is frontloaded into the first 9 days... that wasn't a problem when the population was triple what it is now, as there were plenty of toms left mid April to hunt. Now there are so few toms left alive by mid April, the quality of mid April hunting has drastically declined (because it's just plain harder to FIND a bird mid April).
With the new season structure, we get to hunt unpressured birds when they are the most desperate. It's going to be a LOT of fun for those who prefer hunting by traditional methods.
With the new season structure, we get to hunt unpressured birds when they are the most desperate. It's going to be a LOT of fun for those who prefer hunting by traditional methods.
Buzzard Breath
Well-Known Member
JMO. If TWRA didn't follow suit with the surrounding states, turkey hunting on public land would have become an even bigger zoo than it is already. I'm glad they changed it.
Buzzard Breath
Well-Known Member
It'd be nice to see them open it year round, even if it means making it dog proof only traps during the "non-traditional" seasons. They also need to get rid of the wanton waste regs for nest predators on WMA's.
I agree with you about the zoo on public land with other states not open. It seems they could have simply had a quota for non residents the first two weeks ( other states do it)instead of changing the whole season structure in TN. I would have been all for it had it benefit the reproduction of our turkeys in some way but obviously the study proves it absolutely doesn't. I would much rather hunt the first two weeks of April than the last two weeks of May, that's just me.
Boll Weevil
Well-Known Member
I don't know the answer to this but has any animal once recognized as game ever been relegated to pest/vermin status? Coons, possums, and perhaps even skunks may at one time have been nearly subsistence hunted to extinction (Great Depression era comes to mind). Same perhaps when fur markets were at an all time historical high.
But now?
But now?
Gobble4me757
Well-Known Member
I mean those for the late season etc just why? If it has been proven in the new research as having no effect…makes 0 sense. Check the thread just posted with the research findings.
The trapping season for Coyote, armadillo, oppossum, striped skunk, and raccoon is open year-round. All but the raccoon/possum can be hunted year round. They can be hunted from July 1-March 15.
It would be hard to be more liberal than that.
It would be hard to be more liberal than that.
It is a pretty big jump to claim that preliminary findings from 5 counties that were experiencing MAJOR population declines has proven anything on a statewide basis. There are a lot of turkey biologists scattered across a bunch of southeastern states that would disagree with that.
I'm not much of a turkey hunter but have several in club that are. There are very few weeks out of the year that I don't spend multiple days at camp, so have a good read on our deer & turkey. Our place in Wayne Co was in the study area the past two years, and I can attest that our hatches the past two springs have been the best in 5-6 years. Last year we started trapping in late January and sure that helped a bit too.
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Gobble4me757
Well-Known Member
Show actual proof and not theoretical data. Absolutely nothing in all the data has shown any evidence supporting lowering limits and pushing back season dates to improve population sizes. Have you trapped? If you have as just an observation, I'll bet you have observed an increase in your local population like I have in different areas back in Bama. I work in the medical field…if I use theoretical data to practice medicine, my tail would be sued back to medical school. Sure, a lot more data points to come with further studies but the results are pretty damming to Chamberlain's theories…even Chamberlain acknowledges predator control as a key but doesn't focus on it likely because it's not in alignment with "the dominant gobbler theory"
No doubt predator control is at the top of the list for making things better. But, until fur prices or something else changes, I don't see a major increase in trapping efforts. Folks have the ability to trap for some of the worst nest raiders year-round right now and most aren't doing it.
I have seen some great hunting in my area go down the toilet. The first two weeks of the season have been my favorite weeks to hunt. But, I care enough about the turkey flock to give them up in an attempt to make things better.
You obviously care more about the killing than the population getting better.
Different strokes for different folks.
I have seen some great hunting in my area go down the toilet. The first two weeks of the season have been my favorite weeks to hunt. But, I care enough about the turkey flock to give them up in an attempt to make things better.
You obviously care more about the killing than the population getting better.
Different strokes for different folks.
