State Bag Limits- Too Many Or Too Few?

[CALLM2U]

I had an interesting conversation with an ol' timer last Spring.

I ran into him where I've been calling my 'home' range hunting spot the last 5 years.  He had seen my truck so he wanted to chat.   He's been hunting there for 40 years.   He shared how much it has changed in the last 5 years.  Said you would hear 10-15 turkeys gobble any given spring morning.  Now we're lucky it hear 2. 

I asked him what he thought the change was, people? social media? TSS? ect.  He said the amount of hunters hasn't changed.  The landscape hasn't changed (most of it is wilderness)  he said the only thing he has seen change is predators.  Racoons being the biggest increase.  Said he can remember when he saw his first one, now they are like rats. 

[WLT III]

Never understood the over satisfaction and self congratulations of "yeah killed that one on public". lol. Who cares?

I'll start by saying that I've been hunting local public ground way before it was cool. For me, it has not been so much public ground, but hunting pressured turkeys, rather than unpressured turkeys. I enjoy the challenge more than killing someone's pets. Plenty of private turf that is just as heavily pressured as public though

[sasquatch1]

Never understood the over satisfaction and self congratulations of "yeah killed that one on public". lol. Who cares?

Lol right

Honestly I've not killed many private birds but the ones I did kill have me more trouble than the public birds.

On public I find birds alone much more so than on private where the flocks aren't busted up.


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[Swampmonkey]

Never understood the over satisfaction and self congratulations of "yeah killed that one on public". lol. Who cares?

I'll start by saying that I've been hunting local public ground way before it was cool. For me, it has not been so much public ground, but hunting pressured turkeys, rather than unpressured turkeys. I enjoy the challenge more than killing someone's pets. Plenty of private turf that is just as heavily pressured as public though

We can agree on that part. Everyone around us has about 500-50acres. If you ain't hunting him someone is

[Swampmonkey]

Never understood the over satisfaction and self congratulations of "yeah killed that one on public". lol. Who cares?

Lol right

Honestly I've not killed many private birds but the ones I did kill have me more trouble than the public birds.

On public I find birds alone much more so than on private where the flocks aren't busted up.


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I've experienced the same

[appalachianassassin]

In my zip code, I have witnessed the turkey population spike up and down twice in the 29 years I've been hunting them. Last season I self imposed a limit of 1 in east TN. Let several go late season after I got off the road. There were several Jakes last spring and this year there is a pile of gobblers. 13 in 1 group. So yeah, I'll happily take the limit this season. Turkey populations vary and can go from pitiful to over run in just a few years.

[sasquatch1]

In my zip code, I have witnessed the turkey population spike up and down twice in the 29 years I've been hunting them. Last season I self imposed a limit of 1 in east TN. Let several go late season after I got off the road. There were several Jakes last spring and this year there is a pile of gobblers. 13 in 1 group. So yeah, I'll happily take the limit this season. Turkey populations vary and can go from pitiful to over run in just a few years.

Agree, very cyclical and compounding population changes can happen quickly with the right/wrong conditions in both good direction and bad.

Nothing wrong with self imposed limits if one believes in it. Personally I don't think the harvest is hardly measurable on the population swings but who really knows.


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[Bowguy]

In my zip code, I have witnessed the turkey population spike up and down twice in the 29 years I've been hunting them. Last season I self imposed a limit of 1 in east TN. Let several go late season after I got off the road. There were several Jakes last spring and this year there is a pile of gobblers. 13 in 1 group. So yeah, I'll happily take the limit this season. Turkey populations vary and can go from pitiful to over run in just a few years.

Agree, very cyclical and compounding population changes can happen quickly with the right/wrong conditions in both good direction and bad.

Nothing wrong with self imposed limits if one believes in it. Personally I don't think the harvest is hardly measurable on the population swings but who really knows.


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Do you believe predators could be part of the problem? Humans are predators. How come areas you hunt, often right near where we are ,always have at least one property, the one with the no hunting signs, saturated with turkey and deer. If its local everything else us the same. 
Might be obvious to think thats where they just got pushed to but if everything else was the same the flocks, herds ought to diminish. They dont.
Something to think about.
Now understand dead is dead no matter how theyre killed. We have to have an affect I'd think

[appalachianassassin]

In my zip code, I have witnessed the turkey population spike up and down twice in the 29 years I've been hunting them. Last season I self imposed a limit of 1 in east TN. Let several go late season after I got off the road. There were several Jakes last spring and this year there is a pile of gobblers. 13 in 1 group. So yeah, I'll happily take the limit this season. Turkey populations vary and can go from pitiful to over run in just a few years.

Agree, very cyclical and compounding population changes can happen quickly with the right/wrong conditions in both good direction and bad.

Nothing wrong with self imposed limits if one believes in it. Personally I don't think the harvest is hardly measurable on the population swings but who really knows.


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Im not sure if hunters have an impact or not. Either way, I wish not to be part of the problem. That, and I prefer adventure hunts anyway.

[eggshell]

In my zip code, I have witnessed the turkey population spike up and down twice in the 29 years I've been hunting them. Last season I self imposed a limit of 1 in east TN. Let several go late season after I got off the road. There were several Jakes last spring and this year there is a pile of gobblers. 13 in 1 group. So yeah, I'll happily take the limit this season. Turkey populations vary and can go from pitiful to over run in just a few years.

Agree, very cyclical and compounding population changes can happen quickly with the right/wrong conditions in both good direction and bad.

Nothing wrong with self imposed limits if one believes in it. Personally I don't think the harvest is hardly measurable on the population swings but who really knows.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Do you believe predators could be part of the problem? Humans are predators. How come areas you hunt, often right near where we are ,always have at least one property, the one with the no hunting signs, saturated with turkey and deer. If its local everything else us the same. 
Might be obvious to think thats where they just got pushed to but if everything else was the same the flocks, herds ought to diminish. They dont.
Something to think about.
Now understand dead is dead no matter how theyre killed. We have to have an affect I'd think

Birds learn where sanctuary properties are, I 100% believe pressure moves them. Back when I run bird dogs I hunted management plots for Pheasants. After about a week a plot that held 30 birds would only provide a few flushes. ODNR marked off safety no hunting zones around these plots. I would send the dogs into them and wait outside the boundary and birds would pour out of those zones, but they would rarely fly towards the legal shooting area. It would be very hard to convince me they don't learn where they are safe.

[arkrem870]

It's simple to think....if we didn't allow turkeys to be harvested by hunters the population would boom!  What many fail to realize is turkey are hunted by everything else - coons,coyotes,fox, bobcats, owls, hawks, eagles, snakes etc 24/7 365 and they dont just harvest males like we do.

Spring hunting for gobblers only isn't a threat to wild turkey populations with our current parameters.

[mountainhunter1]

Habitat improvement will help - but that is probably the hardest needle to move as Turkey's and turkey hunters are such a small segment of the radar for much of our nation's population.

But predators are something that all of us can do something about even if truly fixing habitat is not doable where we live and hunt. I do not have all the answers and don't pretend to. But one thing I do know - a turkey can nest and operate just find even if she has to nest in open hardwoods (and it happens as I walk up on nests in open hardwoods almost yearly), as long as something does not raid her nest. We can all kill more crows, trap more coons, possums and such. It is just a matter of do we care enough to do it.

Just a question - I have long wondered if banning TSS would make a difference in turkey hunting? I don't know and am just asking. But there is a good chance based on what I encounter in the woods on public - that if folks did not have the means to shoot birds down at 60, 70, 80 or even 90 yards - alot of them would not kill a bird and many of them would eventually give up and find something else to do. I personally would be fine being limited to lead shot only as it used to be. But I am not sure if that is the answer and am just asking for your thoughts?

[Dtrkyman]

Death by a thousand cuts, there is generally no smoking gun.

I hunt an area that is predator paradise, it's got em thick, but also has piles of turkeys.  Why, the habitat is incredible, build it and they will come!

Many habitat changes go under the radar, I hunted an area where I had access to a pasture for over a decade, I literally never hunted it as it never had birds.

Lost access a few years ago and it has birds in it every stinking day! The neighbor logged right next to it and the pasture has a new renter, it looks no different but things have changed!


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[Bowguy]

In my zip code, I have witnessed the turkey population spike up and down twice in the 29 years I've been hunting them. Last season I self imposed a limit of 1 in east TN. Let several go late season after I got off the road. There were several Jakes last spring and this year there is a pile of gobblers. 13 in 1 group. So yeah, I'll happily take the limit this season. Turkey populations vary and can go from pitiful to over run in just a few years.

Agree, very cyclical and compounding population changes can happen quickly with the right/wrong conditions in both good direction and bad.

Nothing wrong with self imposed limits if one believes in it. Personally I don't think the harvest is hardly measurable on the population swings but who really knows.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Do you believe predators could be part of the problem? Humans are predators. How come areas you hunt, often right near where we are ,always have at least one property, the one with the no hunting signs, saturated with turkey and deer. If its local everything else us the same. 
Might be obvious to think thats where they just got pushed to but if everything else was the same the flocks, herds ought to diminish. They dont.
Something to think about.
Now understand dead is dead no matter how theyre killed. We have to have an affect I'd think

Birds learn where sanctuary properties are, I 100% believe pressure moves them. Back when I run bird dogs I hunted management plots for Pheasants. After about a week a plot that held 30 birds would only provide a few flushes. ODNR marked off safety no hunting zones around these plots. I would send the dogs into them and wait outside the boundary and birds would pour out of those zones, but they would rarely fly towards the legal shooting area. It would be very hard to convince me they don't learn where they are safe.

That is obvious but.... How come those particular flocks, herds arent decimated by predators?. Theyd (predators) all be stupid if they didnt head to the game richest property to hunt.

[Shiloh]

Something is definitely happening, but I don't think anyone really knows what.  It could be disease or it could be predation or it could just be that numbers spiked and have to settle at a reasonable carrying capacity.  Do what you can where you are at whether it be habitat work, trapping,trigger control, etc.....