I'm seeing more birds around south-central MS than I've seen in several years. Just curious how the population is looking in other parts of the state for any other MS hunters out there?
Turkey numbers way down in North MS...at least where I hunt.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I'm afraid the best Mississippi turkey hunting is in the rear view mirror.
If the best years aren't behind us in the 6 coastal region then they're waaaaaay down the road. I specifically hunt on the MS/LA line (Pearl River is the state line) and our population took a severe turn for the worse about 3-4 years ago and I've yet to see signs of a rebound. I now drive an hour or so N just to hunt decent areas. I'm glad that certain areas are doing well, hopefully the overflow will migrate our way...lol
Our numbers are lower now than over the last 5 years down here in southwest ms.
They seem to be on a slow and steady decline in my part of state. Early every year we get a big influx of out of state hunters on our nearby public land. Once they get here and get a taste of how difficult these birds are they don't stay long.
have not been able to get out and look yet this season, got my fingers crossed that the #"s are up
Overall the numbers are down. Fortunately there's still small pockets of turkeys surviving and somewhat maintaining numbers but they surely aren't increasing. Kinda hard for those eggs and young poults to survive the huge expanses of burned pine forests.
In North MS, from my observations we peaked 2012-2013 and have been on a slow and steady decline ever since. Now I'm hearing that biologists have determined that there are hens in our population that never even try to nest and nobody seems to know why. Think about that...
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Cant really tell. I am going to hunt them regardless whether there are 2 or 2000000
Quote from: DrDirtNap on March 21, 2018, 08:50:32 AM
In North MS, from my observations we peaked 2012-2013 and have been on a slow and steady decline ever since. Now I'm hearing that biologists have determined that there are hens in our population that never even try to nest and nobody seems to know why. Think about that...
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I heard a similar thing from a biologist in La he said not only do some hens not nest at all most will not try to renest if a predator gets a partial clutch. No reason why but he said maybe inbreeding. In La there are small pockets of birds and huge areas with no turkeys at all isolated flocks that continue to inbreed without the normal movement in and out of birds from one area to another. I've read and heard a lot about Mississippis decline Alabama as well but look at it this way La had an estimated population of 60-80 thousand birds before the noticeable decline of the last 8-10 years compared to Miss and Ala population y'all are in a lot better shape than us. And at least Mississippi and Alabama will try to do something these ignorant coon a$$ don't know which way is up.
I have noticed a decline in north ms.the last couple of years also.
North part of state in horrible shape..... Each year getting worse
From what I want to say, it's down in S. MS. I'm having more success though. Maybe it's because I started taking turkey hunting more seriously for the past few years.
Way up here in Pennsylvania the turkey numbers are a pale shadow of what they were in the 90s.
There was a time up here that every woodlot over 20 acres was nearly guaranteed to host a flock of turkeys. Every hill you crested had turkeys.
Now you can drive out in the country roads and you'll be lucky to see a single flock. They are around, but it's a far cry from what it used to be. Most people blame the influx of fishers and bobcats, coons, skunks, and possums......as well as an increasing population of raptors.
I've heard more than one report of bald eagles killing adult turkeys in open fields.