Turkey season changes....

[Boll Weevil]

^ Very interesting and thanks for expounding. Totally anecdotal but I noticed something on the now 11yr journey to build the flock on my place. The first few years only saw a few more hens here and there and then maybe 6-7 years in things just exploded. There were bunches of hens 10, 15, 20 at a time. that's when the numbers really started to boom. While I'm sure it was a combination of actions that contributed, the "critical mass" of hens to nest must have kicked in. Nesting success was finally outpacing mortality and the "turkey factory" was cranking.

 

[Bullfrog]

Alot of it boils down to pressure, plain and simple, imo. Pressure from predators and people, both. We trap on our place, but it's only a drop in the bucket, percentage wise. When it comes to pressure from people, I know an area where almost every 2 yr old gets killed the first couple weeks of season every year. It's in a spot that they go to, and there are about 10 people who know it. Then it comes down to the decoy hunters that couldn't kill a turkey if their life depended on it, without it, but they're gonna kill their 3 or 4 no matter what. They don't care about the turkey...they care about the killing. Someone above mentioned LBL. One of the LEO's told me that they regularly write over 100 tickets per year to folks hunting before season opens up over there. More turkeys is more turkeys, anyway you look at it. Control what you can control. If that means 2 turkeys and 2 weeks later opening, so be it.

 

[muddyboots]

I think it's ridiculous. Twra has mishandled CWD and this. 2 things are wrong with the turkeys. Limit was too high. Easy fix. Make it 2. Season used to open even earlier than now. I remember turkey hunting opening days in March. Hunting was unreal. Best in the country I'd say. But limit was 2. The next thing wrong is nest predators. Fix those 2 things and turkeys b fine. I like hunting them before green up. If limits 2 don't matter if you kill then in April or May. I have lost all faith in twra.

 

[redblood]

I want to help the flock and im fine waiting 2 more weeks. But now its a 3 week season and for people who work, it 6 or 8 days. Take in account spring rains and odd weather and it 4 or 5 hunts. No one is hinting turkeys after may 10th or 12th. Those last 2 weeks will not have many hunters. Id rather smallmouth fish anyway, but my son will come home every day and grab his shotgun and go to sneaking. He asks everyday when it opens. Havent had the heart to tell him , he now has to wait 2 more weeks

 

[cowhunter71]

I want to help the flock and im fine waiting 2 more weeks. But now its a 3 week season and for people who work, it 6 or 8 days. Take in account spring rains and odd weather and it 4 or 5 hunts. No one is hinting turkeys after may 10th or 12th. Those last 2 weeks will not have many hunters. Id rather smallmouth fish anyway, but my son will come home every day and grab his shotgun and go to sneaking. He asks everyday when it opens. Havent had the heart to tell him , he now has to wait 2 more weeks

Sounds like you and your son have no business being in the turkey woods anyways with reasoning like that

 

[Rockhound]

So... what the locations where season opening was delayed (Arkansas, LBL, TN, etc) only proved ONE thing... once turkey populations have declined beyond a certain point, NOTHING is going to allow them to recover while hunting is still occuring (and perhaps nothing will allow them to recover even if there is no hunting).

This...

 

[redblood]

Sounds like you and your son have no business being in the turkey woods anyways with reasoning like that

Well its my woods so i guess i will decide that

 

[Fearless]

Well its my woods so i guess i will decide that

Amen to that

 

[Huntaholic]

I'm ok with the changes. The birds are still henned up at the first of the season and only once that I can recall in the last 30 years have I killed one opening weekend. They just don't work to a call. Or it could be I just suck at it.

LOL Dont take this the wrong way, but you suck at it. Im fine with losing 2 weeks at the start, I just wish they had left the closing date the same as it was.

 

[Kevo222]

if there was a competition for sucking at Turkey hunting, I'd be very competitive…

Yeah, well, I'd beat you at it.

 

[Gravey]

LOL Dont take this the wrong way, but you suck at it. Im fine with losing 2 weeks at the start, I just wish they had left the closing date the same as it was.

No offense taken. Moving the closing date back won't affect me and I don't think it will a lot of others too. I'm not gonna chase them when it's 90 degrees outside and will be done by the first of May if the weather does what it normally does.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

We got out all 30 dogproofs today. Kill them all! Killed 93 in 2022

 

[younggun308]

We got out all 30 dogproofs today. Kill them all! Killed 93 in 2022

 

[knightrider]

I'm ok with the changes. The birds are still henned up at the first of the season and only once that I can recall in the last 30 years have I killed one opening weekend. They just don't work to a call. Or it could be I just suck at it.

Loosing those first two week's really sucks, we always have a pile killed by the 15th , guess now i will just have to take off more time from work to get everyone their birds

 

[Harold Money jr]

It really doesn't make much difference to me BUT, the past few years I've kinda started on or just after this new opening date. More hunters have given up by then and the hunting is better. Now, it'll be interesting to hunt land where there's several more gobblers when I start.
Henned up gobblers frustrate me and I like it when i can strike a lonely gobbler at about noon during middle to late April. Same difference with deer, I like hunting the rut when the bucks are on their feet all day.
Last year, the last week of the season on my place there was 4 gobblers and about 4 jakes who would walk out of the woods and walk straight to some cedar trees on top of a hill in the pasture. They would sit in the shade and gobble their heads off but, wouldn't come out of the shade until they positively identified a hen. It's gonna be frustrating if they do it this year but, I'll have to see them 2 weeks longer. Might have to sick the boy on them, he can "deer hunt" them. I don't care for it myself, he doesn't care that much how they come in.

 

[TITANSFAN2104]

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.

Traditional methods?? LOL
I kill them the same way in May as i do march!!

 

[TITANSFAN2104]

To be honest im usually done hunting by the time the season is gonna start this year. I usually kill 1 at most every season for the last few years. The last time i killed multiple birds was 2017 when i killed 3 in 4 days.
I usually take my son on juvenile for the last 5 years and i take my buddy every year. So while i dont kill many i usually see 4 or 5 die every year in the first 2 weeks. So the season change will really be different for me.

 

[TITANSFAN2104]

In the absence of a solid solution to the problems of predators I am all for every possible solution including less popular ones. I oversee a property where we trap aggressively and support excellent habitat and yes we see very good numbers there. I manage another where the owners do nothing trapping related but have an expanse of dense habitat and they still have incredible numbers. A nearby property that has everything in order management wise but has constant declining numbers. The only factor I see there that I do not elsewhere is the 8 to 10 guys that hunt it hunt early, hunt hard and kill everything that gobbles early then they are out stomping thru everything trying to scare up a bird or are hunting the property lines trying to pull a bird off the neighbors. This is a bigger factor than many of you do not want to accept.
Let me add that turkey mating is not a simple task. I raise heritage turkeys and maintain a breeder flock. Experienced birds can complete the act with relative ease but know that there is no penetration but anus to anus contact is required. Stop and look at all that lies in the way! Tail feathers the hen must move aside at the right time, many less controllable vent feathers as well as grass, weeds and more can interfere. Lessor experienced hens can and do make this more difficult. Jakes or inexperienced males truly struggle to get timing and aim together causing hens to become anxious or impatient. High strung males may dance on the hens back causing her to not be positioned right or to attempt to get away, this is where spurred males can injure a hen causing infections that prevent nesting or kill the hen. Subordinate males will even ejaculate on the hens back rather than complete the task if he is rushed or stressed. As in many species males do not reach sexual maturity as early as females and if a flock is left with late hatched males many hens could go without being bred. Finally if a hen does manage to nest and have fertile eggs under her, she will lock down on that nest the last 10 days. Her desire to complete incubation is so strong that she will sit tight when faced with certain death by predators and farm equipment when this happens we lose both hen and nest.
Finally never ever "look" for a nest!!! If you approach a nest a predator will most likely track your scent into that nest and it will be destroyed within a couple days!

In close, MATURE males are required for a successful nesting season!
HABITAT is required for a successful flock
Predator CONTROL is required for large productive flocks.

We have to make stew here folks not just soup.

Ive raised heritage breeds for the last few years. Ive had a free ranging flock of over 125 at one point. If i had 100 hens and 50 jakes/toms going into march (breeding season) by the end of may i would still have my toms and jakes and would lose 75% of my free ranging hens every single year.

I didnt have a barn to put them in so it just happened and i finally quit raising them. I have 6 toms and 1 hen left currently and she only made it because she nested next to my house in a dog house about 30 yards from a german shepherd LOL.
No matter how much i searched and got every egg i could find hoping to break them off the nests further away from the house, i just couldnt keep up. I would hatch about 300 a year myself and i would always have a handful that would hatch their own clutch but they would never make it long becasue she would stay far away from the toms.

Im a firm believer our populations have dwindled more due to predation (eggs and hens) during the nesting phases than any other cause. I think predators have changed their tastes and figured out that nesting hens are easy. I think birds of prey are becoming more common (hawks, owls and even eagles) and are really hitting the younger birds. I actually had an owl that was maybe 14" tall that was killing every 12 lb turkey i had. He would pull them out of the trees and take them down, rip their head off and get another.

 

[TITANSFAN2104]

I think it's ridiculous. Twra has mishandled CWD and this. 2 things are wrong with the turkeys. Limit was too high. Easy fix. Make it 2. Season used to open even earlier than now. I remember turkey hunting opening days in March. Hunting was unreal. Best in the country I'd say. But limit was 2. The next thing wrong is nest predators. Fix those 2 things and turkeys b fine. I like hunting them before green up. If limits 2 don't matter if you kill then in April or May. I have lost all faith in twra.

Its never opened any earlier than it has been. Not in smith or wilson counties anyways.

 

[Bone Collector]

the absolute BEST week to call toms in to the gun has been the 3rd weekend of the season (mid April).

This ^^^ I am not a great turkey hunter. I am "Ok" at it. I have managed to kill a lot of the toms in the 3rd and 4th week of season. I guess now that will be the 1st and 2nd week of season. Being I generally only kill 2-3 per year and here lately usually 1, I am fine with 2 birds, because I may actually tag out