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Ratio of Hens to Gobblers

Started by vthokie7227, April 26, 2022, 12:49:56 PM

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vthokie7227

I just wrapped up a three day hunt on a piece of property I've had my eye on for some time. This place had it all: crop fields, CRP, good sized blocks of mature hardwoods throughout, and lots of water. I saw more deer, coons, and ducks than I could count, and I saw probably 40 plus hens. Although I saw all the hens, I only spotted one gobbler (and he ran across the road as I was returning to camp on evening) and didn't hear a single gobble the whole trip. I'm curious what kind of ratio of hens to gobblers y'all typically see in your neck of the woods? Are high numbers of hens without gobblers indicative of an area that's been heavily hunted?

GobbleNut

Based on your description and account of the hunt, my first inclination would be to say yes, that place most likely gets heavily hunted.  Certainly, there may be other factors that might account for the circumstances you encountered, but if I was a betting man, I would say human harvest would be high on my list of causes of what you experienced. 

I saw the same thing just a few weeks ago on a property that I hunted for the first time.  I knew going in that it appeared to me that too many hunters were being allowed to hunt the area and that was pretty much confirmed by the absence of mature gobblers as compared to the numbers of hens.

For example, I saw a flock of forty hens that did not have a single gobbler or jake with them.  Saw another flock half that size with the same thing,...no gobblers, no jakes.  This was during the height of the breeding season where there is no way those flocks should not have had gobblers present.

Conversely, I hunted another property with similar habitat and circumstances, but with much less, and controlled, hunting pressure, and the number of gobblers was very high in relationship to the numbers of hens. 

JohnSouth22

sounds highly pressured, if smaller tracks could be due to neighbors as well. if larger track there's some efficient hunters currently hunting the place, would bounce back if you owned/leased said property

vthokie7227

I appreciate your inputs GobbleNut and John! This was the second weekend of our season, so I'm guessing the place got hammered the previous weekend. To make matters more weird, I didn't see a single other hunter or truck for that matter the whole weekend. I fully expected to see at least one other person