What says TWRA about this...

[TurkeyBurd]

4 is the limit!!!! Kill 4 or less, or what you're going to eat. We can't change the laws so let's be happy with what we have. $136 is enough to be upset about, let's don't argue with fellow hunters. I think we are all on this site because of the same interest. Let's just agree to disagree. Happy fishing!! Hope for a good hatch.

 

[8 POINTS OR BETTER]

For those that say we as hunters have little to no impact, why dont you put up or shut up. ;) Invite me, captain hook, and a couple more close friends I know to come hunt your place next spring. If we cant impact your population then I will give you my places to hunt for the next 3 years.

My turkeys are for me. I have a decent population for me! Impact your own turkeys, or not. I can handle my own thank you.

LOL Huntaholic before the season started, I tryied to get him to let me hunt is place this season and I would trade out the next season. That way I could save the turkeys on my place this year . But he say something about not being able to afford shells next year.

 

[Tennessee Todd]

I took 3 trips to Fentress County this year and brought back two longbeards. I should have killed one on my third trip, but he snuck in on me. Normally all four birds come from Fentress, but I found a few places closer to home this year where the other two came from.

I actually hunt very close to Steven's place. From my experience, there's as many or more birds there now as there have been in several years. All I can say is that I'm seeing birds, sorry if others in the area aren't.

I told you that golden nugget enhancer would work didn't I?

 

[RS]

If 4 birds is too many for each and every hunter to harvest then the limit should not be set so high.

That's a pretty dumb statement captain. If your logic of "every hunter harvesting the limit" was used, TWRA would likely not even allow turkey hunting. With a total population of around 300,000 birds (hens and gobblers), the limit couldn't even be set at 1 bird. I would veture to say that only around 25% of turkey hunters are successful. I do know that approximately 70% of those that are successful only kill one bird. TWRA knows this and does their best to set the limits accordingly.

The limit in Unit L is 3 antlerless deer per day. Do you honestly think TWRA set that limit thinking that every hunter would possibly kill 3 per day. It's not going to happen, just like very few turkey hunters are going to kill multiple birds each year.

 

[4onaside]

For those that say we as hunters have little to no impact, why dont you put up or shut up. ;) Invite me, captain hook, and a couple more close friends I know to come hunt your place next spring. If we cant impact your population then I will give you my places to hunt for the next 3 years.

My turkeys are for me. I have a decent population for me! Impact your own turkeys, or not. I can handle my own thank you.

LOL Huntaholic before the season started, I tryied to get him to let me hunt is place this season and I would trade out the next season. That way I could save the turkeys on my place this year . But he say something about not being able to afford shells next year.

Hey 8, how'd you do this year? Did you kill your turkeys or did you kill somebody else's and save yours for next year? LOL

 

[RS]

BTW where did you get the 300,000 bird number from? I have never heard a population estimate for our flock.

ALso, we have no way of knowing how many turkey hunters are successful, because we have no idea how many turkey hunters there are in this state. So making assumptions on success statewide are mythical given the lack of knowledge.

The estimate comes from TWRA.

We may not know the exact number of turkey hunters in the state, but we do know for a fact that around 70% of the hunters only kill one bird. I don't know how many kill 3 or 4, but I would expect it be a very small percentage.

 

[8 POINTS OR BETTER]

For those that say we as hunters have little to no impact, why dont you put up or shut up. ;) Invite me, captain hook, and a couple more close friends I know to come hunt your place next spring. If we cant impact your population then I will give you my places to hunt for the next 3 years.

My turkeys are for me. I have a decent population for me! Impact your own turkeys, or not. I can handle my own thank you.

LOL Huntaholic before the season started, I tryied to get him to let me hunt is place this season and I would trade out the next season. That way I could save the turkeys on my place this year . But he say something about not being able to afford shells next year.

Hey 8, how'd you do this year? Did you kill your turkeys or did you kill somebody else's and save yours for next year? LOL

We killed 11 off our farm this year. We had been holding back the last couple of years, because of the bad hatches.

 

[4onaside]

Sounds like a bunch of turkeys. What part of the county are you in? How many people killed 11? And I ain't settin you up for the 4's too many sermon! I'm of the age where the battle cry is, "Wait, wait for what!". LOL

 

[RS]

We may not know the exact number of turkey hunters in the state, but we do know for a fact that around 70% of the hunters only kill one bird.

DO you realize how amazingly contradictory this statement is, and utterly false? If you don't know how many there are, there is no way you can know what percentage are successful.

You're right. What I meant to say was about 70% of the successful hunters only kill one bird. The remaining 30% of successful hunters kill more than one. TWRA may not know how many turkey hunters there are, but they do know how many were successful at taking birds.

 

[RS]

I've not seen any percentages from this year yet. I'm just hoping that all these jakes that everybody saw this past season will be gobbling good next year and maybe things will settle out over the next few seasons. I'm sure there were fewer 2-year olds this past season because of the late freeze and then drought conditions in 2007. All 4 of my birds this year appeared to be 3+ years old. Several of my buddies killed older birds too.

 

[muddyboots]

These are the facts I know. I have hunted the same 900 acre lease for 16 years. When i first started turkey hunting it the limit was one. There were two turkey hunters on the whole place. Turkeys everywhere. Kill one pretty easily. Then the limit was raised to two. We thought great get to hunt more. We still killed our two limit but we picked up a couple more turkey hunters and they started killing there limit. No problem still plenty turkeys. Then the limit went to three we thought even better. We really whacked em that year. Then the limit went to 4 and we really whacked em even more then. Then the last two years you can barely see a turkey. We killed three birds this year on the whole lease with 8 turkey hunters. Did we kill too many? Heck yea in hindsight but we thought TWRA knew what they were talking about. Hunting was 20 times better when the limit was two.

 

[RS]

muudyboots, I think that we as hunters have a responsibility to help manage the resources on our particular properties. TWRA is trying to manage the state as a whole.

As I stated earlier, the antlerless limit where I deer hunt is 3/day the whole season. Will I try to kill 3/day? Heck no, because my deer sightings will eventually go down. I do my best to manage the areas I hunt. If there appears to be fewer birds on a particular property one year, I kill fewer or hunt other areas. I know some people don't have that luxury, or they hunt public ground, and I can sympathize with them. But should those that work hard on managing their properties and have good populations of birds be "penalized" because others have mismanaged their hunting grounds?

 

[4onaside]

These are the facts I know. I have hunted the same 900 acre lease for 16 years. When i first started turkey hunting it the limit was one. There were two turkey hunters on the whole place. Turkeys everywhere. Kill one pretty easily. Then the limit was raised to two. We thought great get to hunt more. We still killed our two limit but we picked up a couple more turkey hunters and they started killing there limit. No problem still plenty turkeys. Then the limit went to three we thought even better. We really whacked em that year. Then the limit went to 4 and we really whacked em even more then. Then the last two years you can barely see a turkey. We killed three birds this year on the whole lease with 8 turkey hunters. Did we kill too many? Heck yea in hindsight but we thought TWRA knew what they were talking about. Hunting was 20 times better when the limit was two.

I had a thousand dollars in the bank. I kept taking it out in ever larger increments, and I was buying all sorts of good things. Then one day I tried to take some more out, and they told me that there wasn't any more money in my account. The bank should have told me that if I kept taking it out, there wouldn't be anymore left to spend. But, after all, it was my money and I did enjoy the things that it bought. Looking back the whole thing was the banks fault.

 

[8 POINTS OR BETTER]

Sounds like a bunch of turkeys. What part of the county are you in? How many people killed 11? And I ain't settin you up for the 4's too many sermon! I'm of the age where the battle cry is, "Wait, wait for what!". LOL

Hardin Co., 7 hunters killed the 11, but we had 9 different hunters hunt at least once during the season. Of the 11, one was a Jake (killed by a kid on the juvenile hunt) and the other 10 toms all had 1" spurs or longer. We have not see a 2 year old the last two years.

 

[4onaside]

These are the facts I know. I have hunted the same 900 acre lease for 16 years. When i first started turkey hunting it the limit was one. There were two turkey hunters on the whole place. Turkeys everywhere. Kill one pretty easily. Then the limit was raised to two. We thought great get to hunt more. We still killed our two limit but we picked up a couple more turkey hunters and they started killing there limit. No problem still plenty turkeys. Then the limit went to three we thought even better. We really whacked em that year. Then the limit went to 4 and we really whacked em even more then. Then the last two years you can barely see a turkey. We killed three birds this year on the whole lease with 8 turkey hunters. Did we kill too many? Heck yea in hindsight but we thought TWRA knew what they were talking about. Hunting was 20 times better when the limit was two.

I had a thousand dollars in the bank. I kept taking it out in ever larger increments, and I was buying all sorts of good things. Then one day I tried to take some more out, and they told me that there wasn't any more money in my account. The bank should have told me that if I kept taking it out, there wouldn't be anymore left to spend. But, after all, it was my money and I did enjoy the things that it bought. Looking back the whole thing was the banks fault.

Glad you finally equate real world examples with how TWRA is managing our turkey population statewide.

Say what? It was an analogy making the point that RS just made, that you are big boys and you need to manage your own turkeys on your own land, not look for someone to blame because your resources have been depleted by you. Sorry you missed the point. But maybe you thought that any mention of a shortcoming has to be the fault of the TWRA, not the indvidual hunters on a limited piece of property.

 

[Huntaholic]

I hunt 6 different counties, I dont think it's me personally thats depleting the resource in any one place. It is however the combined effect of everyone else that gives me worry. Not much left to say and even less that we can do on this topic.

 

[RS]

Not much left to say and even less that we can do on this topic.

Huntaholic, I totally agree with that statement. TWRA can in no way make every hunter happy, especially when some are seeing lots of birds and others aren't seeing any. I'm just glad we have the opportunity to hunt them in Tennessee.

I'm done with this topic.

 

[4onaside]

Not much left to say and even less that we can do on this topic.

Huntaholic, I totally agree with that statement. TWRA can in no way make every hunter happy, especially when some are seeing lots of birds and others aren't seeing any. I'm just glad we have the opportunity to hunt them in Tennessee.

I'm done with this topic.

Right on boys.