Turkey season changes....

[megalomaniac]

When I was referring to the liberal 6 bird either sex along with 1 bird taken with archery was around 2011 And it wasnt quota hunts at that time , It was wide open. It was also only 4 or 5 years before people started complaining about numbers in the southern portion of the state.

TFWC alters turkey bag limits, redefines antlerless deer

The Tennessee Fish and Wildlife Commission has reigned in fall turkey hunting, loosened the reigns on deer hunting in Knox County and redefined what makes a buck a buck.

archive.knoxnews.com

Correct... 6 for ANYONE in many middle TN counties after the quota system was done away with... but under the quota system, there were around 250 or so (I can't remember exactly) issued for my county each permit valid for 6 hens. And again, there were always 50 to 100 leftover that you could purchase for $5 each, IIRC. So the real killers bought up the extras and waylayed the hens in the fall. WAY more hens total were killed under the quota system than after the quota permits were done away with... by a handful of hunters.

 

[MickThompson]

To me the questions are would you rather hunt fewer turkeys earlier in the cold or more 2 weeks later when it's a few degrees warmer on average.
There is no one answer nor one question.

More. More gobbles is the only answer for me.

 

[TITANSFAN2104]

Correct... 6 for ANYONE in many middle TN counties after the quota system was done away with... but under the quota system, there were around 250 or so (I can't remember exactly) issued for my county each permit valid for 6 hens. And again, there were always 50 to 100 leftover that you could purchase for $5 each, IIRC. So the real killers bought up the extras and waylayed the hens in the fall. WAY more hens total were killed under the quota system than after the quota permits were done away with... by a handful of hunters.

Read the article i posted. It said the single biggest year for hens was 2011 which was a non quota year.
I understand what you are saying though. The chances of the ones that wanted to kill hens increased because they could just go buy the tag and keep killing whereas without the quota they were still only allowed 6 per county or whatever the county limit was.

 

[TITANSFAN2104]

More. More gobbles is the only answer for me.

I was a mid to late season hunter for years but I changed and started killing them early. Most of my hunting is done within the first 2 weeks and rarely do i hunt into the 4th week of season.
In 2019 I took vacation the first week and took my son and a buddy of mine . We had called in and shot AT 10 gobblers in 7 days ..... We killed 4 of them LOL . Needless to say, I was having a great year but it wasnt so great. Son missed 2 and buddy missed 3 and i missed on a hail mary with a 410. I had to apolgize to both of the after the way i acted that week.

 

[redblood]

I dont think anyone has ever "missed" a turkey

 

[Hduke86]

I dont think anyone has ever "missed" a turkey

Yea kind of hard to completely "miss" with hundreds of shot heading their way. A few pellets in the neck and it runs off to die a slow and painful death.