my thoughts on reaping

[Yoder409]

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........ what do you think about rifles legal in states like Wyoming and South Dakota during turkey season?

I couldn't stand behind it.  No way, in the spring.

2018, my brother and I hunted an awesome public tract in Wyoming.  Took us 5 1/2 days to each manage to hang a tag on mature longbeards.

IF............. If I had been using a rifle......... I could have personally killed at least 6 mature birds.  Can't speak for my brother without asking him.  But I'm guessing a similar number for him as well.

BIIIIIG difference taking a Merriam's in big country with a shotgun than a rifle.

[eggshell]

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Way back in the 90s I hunted Montana and my buddy's son worked for the forest service out there. We hunted SE Montana and he  warned me t not set up on birds in open ground in sight of any road. He said a large part of the hunters just drove the roads and shot birds with rifles. So we stayed back and never saw another hunter, but you'd hear a rifle crack every now and then. I suppose it's different now. Back then Montana was new to turkey hunters.

[Happy]

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I still deal with that in WV. I would venture 75% of the turkeys killed in the areas I hunt are with rifles.

[GobbleNut]

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Getting a bit off-topic, but since we have brought it up...

Back before about 1980 or thereabouts, there used to be an all-out war on turkeys here in New Mexico.  Rifles were legal in the fall and every deer hunter got a turkey tag with the deer license.  We had 115,000 deer hunters shooting at turkeys as a consolation prize.  Still, our turkeys managed to do pretty well even with that kind of pressure put on them. 

Nevertheless, we finally got the rifle hunting outlawed by lobbying our Game Commission with the fundamental argument that allowing high-powered rifle hunters to, in essence, "blow up" body-shot turkeys that would most likely be thrown away was not in any way, shape, or form good wildlife management. 

Fortunately, rifles have never been legal in our spring season.  Here, people that suggest that we legalize rifle hunting for turkeys anymore get laughed out of the room,...and for good reason.   

[dzsmith]

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there honestly isnt much opportunity in the enviroments i hunt in to even attempt it. it may be a popular tactic for certain folks, in certain situations in certain enviroments....but i would say in the places i predominantly hunt reaping is a non factor. I dont like it either, but theres a bunch of things in the turkey hunting world i dont like.

[the Ward]

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I have stated this before, but i would never do "reaping" as i don't have a death wish. But on the flip side of the coin, if folks really believed in fair chase, they would go afield naked save for a loincloth and arm themselves with a hand napped flint spear, only using their voice for a call. I mean, if we are going to be honest, how sporting is using hi-tech camo clothing, tss fueled shotguns equipped with optics, and carrying 10 different calls? Everyone has their own perception as to what is sporting, according to the standards of their community. Just food for thought.

[bwhana]

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Well said @the Ward!  This and threads like it are just the turkey hunting version of the traditional vs xbow debates on archery sites.  At the end of the day, TSS, reaping, decoys, etc, do almost nothing to the turkey population reduction in real numbers as compared to nest raiders and predators.  We need to focus on the majors and ignore the minors like this until and unless the populations trend much better.  Divided we fall...

[eggshell]

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So, how do y'all feel about turkey trotlines.....don't hold back now. Hillbillies think it's a fine way to catch viddles

[RiverBuck]

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I run the local turkey trot every year... but 100% against rape.

Seriously, these type threads are a waste of time.

[eggshell]

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I run the local turkey trot every year... but 100% against rape.

Seriously, these type threads are a waste of time.

That was my point, more times then not they divulge into....well something less than constructive

[GobbleNut]

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Regardless of any of our individual thoughts and attitudes about reaping, I believe this issue will ultimately come down to a management decision within wildlife agencies as to how the use of gobbler decoys/fans in any form is impacting the wild turkey resource.  We discuss at length the factors that are impacting wild turkey populations, but you rarely see anybody bringing up the impact that using male turkey representations has had over the last decade or two.  Is it a coincidence that declines in turkey populations over the last ten/twenty years seems to be inversely related to the increase in male-turkey decoy and fan use?  Personally, I am not so certain there is not a correlation there, and in fact, I would suggest it is a significant factor.

As has been stated many times in this thread and others, there is absolutely no doubt that the percentage of gobblers being harvested in any population has significantly increased since the effectiveness of "male-turkey representations" came to light.  That "discovery" is a relatively recent phenomenon in turkey hunting.  Reaping, itself, is just a subset of the bigger problem of whether ANY sort of use of gobbler/jake decoys or fans should be allowed for spring gobbler hunting.  Reaping is just the easiest target for criticism because of some perceived safety issue we have pinned on it. 

I would speculate that the increase in gobbler harvest since male-turkey representations became a fad is a significant factor in decreased gobbler numbers in a number of places.  Not only that, but since a lot of that increased harvest is coming in the form of mature, perhaps dominant (i.e..."breeding"), gobblers in the population, the impact on breeding saturation of the hen population is not at all clear, and in turn, really should be being investigated more seriously as a potential limiting factor in turkey populations.

Decades ago, the entire premise about spring gobbler hunting was that there would always be surplus gobblers that could be harvested out of any turkey population without impacting that population.  That premise was, to a degree, based on the assumption that there would always be a certain percentage of the mature gobbler population that would not be susceptible to traditional hunting methods used at that time.  Perhaps it is time to reevaluate that premise on a wide-spread basis simply because of the discovery of the effectiveness of male decoys and fanning...and make some needed adjustments. 

[deerhunt1988]

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Regardless of any of our individual thoughts and attitudes about reaping, I believe this issue will ultimately come down to a management decision within wildlife agencies as to how the use of gobbler decoys/fans in any form is impacting the wild turkey resource.  We discuss at length the factors that are impacting wild turkey populations, but you rarely see anybody bringing up the impact that using male turkey representations has had over the last decade or two.  Is it a coincidence that declines in turkey populations over the last ten/twenty years seems to be inversely related to the increase in male-turkey decoy and fan use?  Personally, I am not so certain there is not a correlation there, and in fact, I would suggest it is a significant factor.

As has been stated many times in this thread and others, there is absolutely no doubt that the percentage of gobblers being harvested in any population has significantly increased since the effectiveness of "male-turkey representations" came to light.  That "discovery" is a relatively recent phenomenon in turkey hunting.  Reaping, itself, is just a subset of the bigger problem of whether ANY sort of use of gobbler/jake decoys or fans should be allowed for spring gobbler hunting.  Reaping is just the easiest target for criticism because of some perceived safety issue we have pinned on it. 

I would speculate that the increase in gobbler harvest since male-turkey representations became a fad is a significant factor in decreased gobbler numbers in a number of places.  Not only that, but since a lot of that increased harvest is coming in the form of mature, perhaps dominant (i.e..."breeding"), gobblers in the population, the impact on breeding saturation of the hen population is not at all clear, and in turn, really should be being investigated more seriously as a potential limiting factor in turkey populations.

Decades ago, the entire premise about spring gobbler hunting was that there would always be surplus gobblers that could be harvested out of any turkey population without impacting that population.  That premise was, to a degree, based on the assumption that there would always be a certain percentage of the mature gobbler population that would not be susceptible to traditional hunting methods used at that time.  Perhaps it is time to reevaluate that premise on a wide-spread basis simply because of the discovery of the effectiveness of male decoys and fanning...and make some needed adjustments.

Winner! Hard to put it better than that. Thanks for taking the time to type that response.

[Number17]

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If there is any indication that a percentage of hens are not being bred because there is a lack of gobblers, then taking steps to reduce the gobbler harvest (banning gobbler decoys) may be something to look at.
As it stands, I'm not aware of a population that is lacking in males to service the females. I know some States start killing gobblers too early in the season before the majority of the hens are bred, but this is a separate issue.

There is no doubt that blinds and realistic decoys have allowed mediocre turkey hunters to kill gobblers year after year.

[GobbleNut]

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If there is any indication that a percentage of hens are not being bred because there is a lack of gobblers, then taking steps to reduce the gobbler harvest (banning gobbler decoys) may be something to look at.
As it stands, I'm not aware of a population that is lacking in males to service the females.

I am also not aware that a lack of gobblers is a problem, but I think the question to ask is if there have been any studies undertaken in areas of concern which would either confirm or eliminate the concern that there may be too few gobblers in a given population (or area) to have complete, or near-complete, breeding of all breeding-age hens.  I am personally not aware that any such studies have been undertaken.  Perhaps they have been and maybe someone here might cite them.  If there have not been such studies done, particularly in those areas of concern, there should be. 

In addition, with the apparent long-term reproductive failure/population recruitment problems that seem to exist in some regions, continuing to kill off a percentage of the remaining gobblers each spring has got to raise a red flag of concern at some point in time.  Again, this may not be a problem anywhere, but it is at least worth considering and investigating along with all the other potential culprits that might be causing our turkey population declines. 

[Strutnut80]

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I can't speak on the reaping part but the biggest cancer where I live (Eastern NC) is douche bags riding around 2 or 3 to a truck and riding around until they find one in a field. They drop 1 off and he sneaks through the woods, gets close to the edge & shoots the unsuspecting gobbler if he gets close enough, which most of these douche nozzles will shoot at one at 100yds if able. If that's turkey hunting to you then may I suggest taking up another hobby, like knitting!