Covid Year Lock Down

[northms]

In my area of MS during Covid the folks "working from home" must have been working in the turkey woods because in the middle of work week when I usually wouldn't see many trucks before work the woods were full of people. I was still going to office, as I never stopped going and never worked remote. But to answer question, yes. Lots more folks in the woods "working."

[g8rvet]

Saw a lot more kids in the woods, high school and college during the week.  A few of them had no clue to ethics and would do questionable things, but most were raised right and were fine.  Lots of area to spread out where I hunt and so I just hunted the out of the way birds.  Did a lot more hunting by boat that year. 

Draw hunts were different.  Folks were not traveling so the local place we were drawn for was darn near empty.  It was awesome. 

[310 gauge]

Definitely had more "quarantined" hunters in the woods in my area. Couple that with Youth week coinciding with Easter vacation week from school and the numbers soared. Riding around now and Gobblers blowed up and advertising already.   

[Sir-diealot]

Lot more people on the trails that I frequent and more people than normal on public the one day I hunted it for turkey and each day I bow hunted it for deer. NY by the way.

[Big Jeremy]

I'm in Tennessee also. I hunted Tennessee and Alabama extensively in 2020. Saw more hunters than I had in previous years. So, yes, I also saw an increase in a different part of the state (hunter middle to east TN in 2020.) The number of hunters may have dropped a bit in the couple of seasons since then, but not much.

In Alabama, there were more hunters than I accustomed to (I hunt both states every year.) I didn't notice the boon in Alabama that I did in Tennessee overall, but I definitely did on a couple of WMAs. I think YT may have had something to do with one of those, though. More hunters, but where I hunt in Alabama it has stayed close to consistent. There were lots of dedicated turkey hunters in Alabama already.


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[quavers59]

  Oh yeah! Up here in New York State on Public Land there has been a big increase of Hunters since 2020 and the Chinese  Virus. I see has to be younger guys sprinting on Field edges.
     In New Jersey it definitely  is more Crowded.  Not many Turkeys up in Zones 5,6,7, etc- but New people  are definitely  out.

[MISSISSIPPI Double beard]

Indeed it did. There was a huge influx of hunters every where I went. Even had a vehicle from New York state start parking by me.

[dzsmith]

This will be our 5th season tagging turkeys in mississippi. The reported numbers have gone down every year. Last season was a very very slight decline in harvest report but still down. Even the covid year went down not up. All other statistics have gone up since covid...the only thing that went down was harvest. Maybe this year will be different. While i have limited out many times, i no longer really care much about it. One is enough, and even when i did/or do limit out ive never made an attempt to do it in one spot or property not even on private. My dad is getting old, if I manage to get a bird and have time before traveling, my time will be set aside to help him. We have come close many times, but ive yet to call him up a bird and him shoot it. sort of a bucket list item for me before he gets too old

[GuideGun]

2020 was a tough year with a lot of people out.  In fact, it was the the first time I actually ran into another hunter in the woods while spring turkey hunting.  Hell I caught a game warden hunting on the job that year.  He smoked a huge gobbler and I met him at the trailhead.  He just laughed about it.  2021 and 2022 were better for sure, slow decline in pressure.

[Brillo]

Just had this conversation with my hunting buddy yesterday as we are looking forward to this season.  2020 was crazy busy as others have observed.  Seems like that was true about everywhere.  Last year was not as busy and the bird population seems fine today.