Wondering what my hunting brothers seen this past season as far as how the turkey population is doing. I have been greatly blessed to have a few spots that I pay nothing to hunt on. Some are productive as they have always been, whereas others are declining badly. What have ya'll seen?? BTW, I am in middle TN
From My camp in NY I have a view of a very large field that I have watched birds daily for 25 yrs. I have been able to
Kill about 50% of my birds off this field in that same time but even when I do not hunt it I can watch them almost daily.
I have not seen a bird in or around this field for atleast 2 seasons now. I just got back from a 10 day hunt and between My dad, brother ans myself we where only able to locate 2 birds. I put almost 1500 miles on my truck driving around in the afternoons looking for birds. Very few sightings at all. Not looking 2 good. I did in fact call in 2 racoons and 1 coyote. Neither one presented a shot.
from my personal observation in the counties I hunt and travel in southern WV the overall numbers are down but, I actually looked at more gobblers this spring than the past couple. seeing gobblers was easier than hearing gobblers if that makes any sense. seeing hens was very slim and seeing more than a few together early was hard to do. I've been pretty hard on the ground predators in my area and encourage everyone to join in, a little at a time helps big in the end.
Wow, sounds bad for the area that mikejd mentioned. I would have to believe that loss of habitat, varmints left uncontrolled, and wondering now about these sprayed fields, human waste on fields, etc, is hurting the population so bad. Sounds like there needs to be a great effort put forth into getting transmitters on captured birds and see if they can be examined as to what is killing them out so rapidly. Thx for the input fellas
I don't think there is a turkey left in Alabama and only a couple in Georgia, and both of them are hens.
I would like to add this thought, all the revenue that goes into licenses, the hunting industry, etc... We may need to encourage our local state wildlife agencies and lean on them to do more (if possible) to investigate this issue more. Where i hunt in TN, some of our public land is more suited for doves, rabbits, and some other wild game. But i am not aware of a National Dove Convention, a National Rabbit Convention, etc.. I mean absolutely no offence to these whatsoever, and there may be some large Convention style association. Just trying to prove a point. If turkeys arent helped and their future aided in some way, it hurts all the way around. I feel like more needs to be done to help them than maybe investing in some other areas, not saying that those should be ignored. Hope this make sense.
LOL, bad to hear that guesswho, lol
Here is an observation of mine. I hunt turkeys in mostly farm country and deer hunt Big woods. The places I hunt deer in Big woods ( no far country at all) Have growing populations of turkeys even places that never had turkeys. The farm country that myself and others hunt have declining populations. Just like us humans have an epidemic of lower testosterone in men mostly due to pesticides in our food how can this not be affecting turkey that eat the bugs that are being sprayed. i am hopeful that scientists have thought of this and are including it in their studies.
Total numbers are down here. Jake numbers are up, but way fewer hens. Too many people are shooting jakes. Just my :z-twocents:. I think one Jake is enough per season, but it's a legal bird. Z
Numbers seem about the same, maybe down a hair. But I saw and heard a few jakes so gobbling next year should be pretty good. Plenty of 3-4 year olds should be out there too, we didn't harvest but three on the 5K acres this spring.
Down, down, down. Scary down. There are birds in pockets in certain areas, but overall the numbers are down.
This site is more depressing than the news sometimes.
Bird numbers were up and down depending on where I was, hunter numbers are way up and ignorant hunter numbers are off the charts!
Well we had two turkeys left, both Hens. However, one moved to Alabama, and we now have one. "Guess Who" did you count ours as a resident or an illegal immigrant? So you either have two or three hens now. So no one should come to either Ohio or Alabama to hunt, ever. That's all I'm saying on an internet forum. To me this is another way to spot burn an area. Soon as you say you have good numbers the hoards decend.
Quote from: Tom007 on May 29, 2023, 04:03:55 PM
Down, down, down. Scary down. There are birds in pockets in certain areas, but overall the numbers are down.
This is what i have been experiencing. Hunted about 15 different areas here and came up empty. I hunted 25 days this season and worked 1 gobbler. Some other areas of the state I did see pockets of birds but no access. I lost a couple spots to solar panel farms that are popping up like crazy. Even though I did not fill a tag I am very thankful I have my health to pursue Meleagris gallopavo.
Not good here either. I shot one the first morning. After that, I heard one the next 4 mornings, 3 of which I just listened before work. Never heard him after that. I heard another 2 mornings but no idea where he went. I spent several more mornings listening and/or hunting but no other birds heard. I did see a couple of hens and 2 gobblers on some private land near home. Hopefully, those will travel to better locations.
Looking up in my area. We are finally rebounding after hurricane katrina
Hard to tell. Locally, on my daily commute and such, feels like it's hurting. But that's just looking at fields as I drive by.
Plenty of turkeys around where I hunt though, tough to tell numbers.
Maryland
I hunt in West tennessee and honestly for me the season was done after 3 weeks. Heard less gobbling and for the most part saw fewer birds than in the past. I have my own thoughts on this however. I think weather and a combination of when the season opened had some to do with it. I believe because of the nice weather we had earlier before season they had already been a lot of activity before season opened. Some smart folk won't agree but I've saw it before just not as severe. Know for a fact a friend seen a gobbler breed 5 hens two weeks before season opened. I understand why they wanted to do this but I woulda done it differently. Open one week later and closed a week earlier than what we did. Just my thoughts. I quit after the third week from lack of activity and weather reasons.
Where I hunt in southwest VA. Down. Kill numbers were down and where I used to see flocks of 30 or so it's down to about 12 or so. The county I hunt in is down. The overall turkey harvest for the state was a record tho. But hunter numbers have increased in my opinion. (a total guess as the state issues turkey tags with every big game licensee sold so who knows there).
I traveled many states. Missouri was a waste of time. As was where I hunted in Montana. Time I got to Montana, the land owner told me 40 turkeys had been killed before my arrival. Which is crazy. He claimed to have a flock of 300 plus. Wyoming Black Hills. I heard a bunch. Then the weekend came, and it was trucks and 4 wheelers all around. Ran into a local who claimed, "I've been hunting here 20 years and never seen this many people".
So it appears, turkey hunter numbers are up. Turkey populations don't seem to be. I ran into some good turkeys in other states tho. Where I hunted in Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota, turkeys are doing well there.
I'm hoping it gets better. But time will tell.
How about we don't tell everybody on the planet which states have good or great turkey numbers?
Quote from: Paulmyr on May 29, 2023, 10:13:39 PM
How about we don't tell everybody on the planet which states have good or great turkey numbers?
Agreed !! We are our own worst enemies it seems ...
Worse habitat. More nest raiders. More hunters. Bad weather. Some of these we can manipulate/some we cannot. Even if we manipulate the ones we possibly can it may not help- but it dang sure won't hurt...
General observations in the places I have hunted: (almost entirely western-states public lands)
Point One: More hunters are taking more gobblers out of the population each spring than are being replaced. That fact alone points to declining quality of hunting,...and declining opportunity as more restrictions are implemented to conserve the remaining resource.
Point Two: In those places where public and private properties are interspersed together (which is common), more people are moving into those private areas and doing two things. They are both posting their properties against hunting (or reserving the hunting for themselves or select individuals), and they are also attracting wildlife off of the surrounding public lands and holding it either on their property, or close enough to present problems for hunters hunting the surrounding public lands.
We (me and the guys I hunt with) are consistently hunting in situations where we are trying to pull turkeys off of private properties that have intentionally made improvements on their land to attract and hold turkeys (and other wildlife) on their properties and keep them there. In many of those cases, turkeys that just a decade or two ago would consistently be on public lands near these private lands are no longer spending any time on the public lands.
Last year was the worst year we've had in 40 years according to my father. This year felt back to normal almost.
Both of the birds we killed were 2 year olds however.
And hunting pressure was still insanely high locally.
I was very worried last year.
Our fall turkey season is actually popular around where I hunt and people do harvest hens (including myself in the past). I would never consider taking a hen now and actually I voluntarily have been skipping the fall season in general because I prefer the spring season.
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Quote from: GobbleNut on May 30, 2023, 10:04:16 AM
General observations in the places I have hunted: (almost entirely western-states public lands)
Point One: More hunters are taking more gobblers out of the population each spring than are being replaced. That fact alone points to declining quality of hunting,...and declining opportunity as more restrictions are implemented to conserve the remaining resource.
Point Two: In those places where public and private properties are interspersed together (which is common), more people are moving into those private areas and doing two things. They are both posting their properties against hunting (or reserving the hunting for themselves or select individuals), and they are also attracting wildlife off of the surrounding public lands and holding it either on their property, or close enough to present problems for hunters hunting the surrounding public lands.
We (me and the guys I hunt with) are consistently hunting in situations where we are trying to pull turkeys off of private properties that have intentionally made improvements on their land to attract and hold turkeys (and other wildlife) on their properties and keep them there. In many of those cases, turkeys that just a decade or two ago would consistently be on public lands near these private lands are no longer spending any time on the public lands.
I think also with the methods of many of the new breed of turkey hunters and the quest for the slam forces turkeys to private as well. Where in 15/20 years ago or more the methods used by hunters didn't disturb the turkeys near as much. They weren't constantly being harassed or atleast didn't know they were being hunted until it was to late. All this running gunning, turkey reaping, bushwhacking gets them spooked from the get go.
Used be 3/4/5 guys could hunt an area and the turkeys would be none the wiser. Now every weekend has atleast one guy, most likely more, running to every turkey they hear gobbling in the woods and putting heavy pressure on them in the hopes of getting a shot. There's no attempt to learn the habits of the turkeys in the area they are hunting. There's no waiting til the time is right. They force every encounter because it has do get done now and it usually ends up with spooky turkeys that would rather hang on private where the aren't harassed near as much.
I bet many of the turkeys you described hunting have no problems hanging out in public during the off season.
My belief is that the mapping technology is having the biggest effect on hunters accessing lands, not too long ago you couldn't know and pick spots from your couch!
I have killed a lot of birds from waypoints I created from home at a place I have never set foot!
Couple hours on mapping and you can find some great places, problem is now so has everyone else!
Up some places, down in others. Public land pressure as bad as i've seen the past 20 years. Keep thinking we will hit a tipping point, but still haven't.
:gobble: :OGturkeyhead:
Been roughly the same for me over the 18 years I've been chasing them. Sometimes I hear/see more and others not. Up and down basically
The only main thing I've seen change is 10x the amount of hunters but I've adapted well and still find success. Although it does get annoying at times
Sometimes I see some of these responses and it just makes me scratch my head. Some people either just struggle no matter what unless they at Sanderson farms or won't adapt and find better places, continuing to hunt the same dry holes no matter what
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You are right again Gobblenut. This spring in my out of state hunt we counted 24 gobblers in fields around houses, barns and private adjacent to the public land we hunted for years. every pull off had vehicles and birds were very scarce on public. Thank Gosh we had about three hundred acres of private posted land to ourselves. That didn't help me but my buddy took two and another hunter on the property took a bird. Here at home I see it big time and again I am very privileged to be able to have 1200 acres of highly controlled and managed private to hunt. It makes a huge difference when birds aren't getting daily horror film experiences and constant harassing. If I ever have to go full on public I may just quit. i realize many of you don't get the chance for a fully private hunting spot and I feel for you, but I am not apologizing for 100 years of land management my family has practiced. We are proof if you take care of the land the resource will be there. That is why I think hunting pressure does play a part in declining populations.
Quote from: eggshell on May 30, 2023, 06:19:07 PM
You are right again Gobblenut. This spring in my out of state hunt we counted 24 gobblers in fields around houses, barns and private adjacent to the public land we hunted for years. every pull off had vehicles and birds were very scarce on public. Thank Gosh we had about three hundred acres of private posted land to ourselves. That didn't help me but my buddy took two and another hunter on the property took a bird. Here at home I see it big time and again I am very privileged to be able to have 1200 acres of highly controlled and managed private to hunt. It makes a huge difference when birds aren't getting daily horror film experiences and constant harassing. If I ever have to go full on public I may just quit. i realize many of you don't get the chance for a fully private hunting spot and I feel for you, but I am not apologizing for 100 years of land management my family has practiced. We are proof if you take care of the land the resource will be there. That is why I think hunting pressure does play a part in declining populations.
The last three years, I/we have hunted four different western states that have proven to have the same conditions. The areas consisted of a checkerboard of private and public holdings,...typical for many places with National Forests, BLM lands, and equivalent. In each instance, the circumstances have been the same. In each state, the turkeys were stacked up on private land,...and with relatively few, and highly pressured, birds on the adjacent public stuff.
We could drive around at any time of day and see flocks of turkeys with strutting gobblers on the private property,...often within shotgun distance of houses. Could we have obtained permission to hunt those turkeys if we had asked? Perhaps,...but none of us were wanting to kill a gobbler badly enough to shoot one that was human-conditioned enough that they were hanging out in somebody's barnyard, front lawn, or driveway. Unfortunately, over the past couple of decades, that situation more and more seems to be the norm rather than the exception. ::)
That's why I use rocks and wear red and blue with a red S on my chest instead of a gun when I hunt out your way.
Quote from: guesswho on May 30, 2023, 07:11:14 PM
That's why I use rocks and wear red and blue with a red S on my chest instead of a gun when I hunt out your way.
:TooFunny: Ah yes, those good old days. I think it was some guy that called himself hOmely jOe that started that trend as I recall... Good luck finding those places where folks will let a cosplay guy kill a gobbler in his barnyard with a rock nowadays. What would they do with all that corn they paid for to let their kids hand-feed them?!... ;D :angel9: :toothy12: :toothy9: