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Long Beards & Spurs
Turkey season changes....
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<blockquote data-quote="megalomaniac" data-source="post: 5516349" data-attributes="member: 2805"><p>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).</p><p></p><p>The writing is on the wall... turkeys are going to go the way of the quail and disappear in huntable populations. The question is how long till we are at that point? Many locations that were once turkey havens are already devoid of any birds.</p><p></p><p>The way I see it we have 2 options... keep doing the same thing and kill as many as we can before they disappear, or fight the decline with every tool available and hope they don't become extinct... which probably won't work either.... but it just might buy us a few more years of huntable populations before they are gone for good.</p><p></p><p>But as far as my support for delaying season opening...that's purely for selfish reasons. The hunting is just so much better mid to late April on my farms than late March... if there are any birds that made it to mid April. </p><p></p><p>And while simple common sense (season structure for turkeys should never be set to open before peak breeding... which is around April 15 thru 20 in middle TN) doesn't necessarily translate to standing population trends, it doesn't mean we should manage against common sense strategies.</p><p></p><p>After all, the delayed season change takes away no hunting days afield. Losing a bird going from 3 to 2 limit does take away something out of the freezer, but you can still kill the first, save the other tag, hunt for 41 more straight days, call up birds and pass them, and then tag your 2nd last weekend of season. That's what I would do back in the early 2000s with my self imposed limit of 2 birds on my farms, despite the statewide limit of 4. Still had a blast calling in birds even though I didn't kill them.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="megalomaniac, post: 5516349, member: 2805"] 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). The writing is on the wall... turkeys are going to go the way of the quail and disappear in huntable populations. The question is how long till we are at that point? Many locations that were once turkey havens are already devoid of any birds. The way I see it we have 2 options... keep doing the same thing and kill as many as we can before they disappear, or fight the decline with every tool available and hope they don't become extinct... which probably won't work either.... but it just might buy us a few more years of huntable populations before they are gone for good. But as far as my support for delaying season opening...that's purely for selfish reasons. The hunting is just so much better mid to late April on my farms than late March... if there are any birds that made it to mid April. And while simple common sense (season structure for turkeys should never be set to open before peak breeding... which is around April 15 thru 20 in middle TN) doesn't necessarily translate to standing population trends, it doesn't mean we should manage against common sense strategies. After all, the delayed season change takes away no hunting days afield. Losing a bird going from 3 to 2 limit does take away something out of the freezer, but you can still kill the first, save the other tag, hunt for 41 more straight days, call up birds and pass them, and then tag your 2nd last weekend of season. That's what I would do back in the early 2000s with my self imposed limit of 2 birds on my farms, despite the statewide limit of 4. Still had a blast calling in birds even though I didn't kill them. [/QUOTE]
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