Fed up

[turkey_slayer]

Edit. You're in the western part

[turkeywhisperer935]

Yes I am, originally from a little town called Lexington but moved to Decatur county about 2 years ago. Still try to hunt my home town though.

[Tomfoolery]

Ive almost gotten to the point down here on Louisiana public land, if I hear 2 gobbles a season i consider that tagged out lol. Its been a tough run down here the last couple years. We have been having very mild Februarys the last 2 years and most everything is sprouted and it feels like summer time before the season opens. And most of the gobbling is over with. Im headed to the black hills next weekend. I sure hope those merriams sing the way everyone says they do lol.

[turkeywhisperer935]

Yea they try to say warm weather has nothing to do with it but from what I've experienced it sure seems to.

[Greg Massey]

Yea they try to say warm weather has nothing to do with it but from what I've experienced it sure seems to.

You know i will have to agree with you on the weather, 2 weeks before our season opened in Tenn i was hearing twice as much gobbling as i have after season opened.. It was pretty warm those 2 weeks before season opened...

[spaightlabs]

Climate change is a hoax, remember?

If it is warmer earlier and the birds are doing their thing earlier, you need to switch to late season tactics sooner and maybe even begin the season with late season tactics...

I'm sure it is frustrating to hear or see nothing - I've been there.  You might have to travel further or even out of state.

It is a 90 minute drive for me to my spot and I have to draw  special tag and get permission to hunt it.  In years I don't draw I hit the road and have to drive 5 hours and to another state to hunt.  It's always worth it, even if I don't punch my ticket.

[HawkeyeGobbler]

reintroduce the bobcat and give it protected status, the logic behind our DNR is a mystery.

Not to get too far off topic, but seriously?? I would be ticked. Percentage-wise where I'm at I'd say bobcats kill more turkeys than coyotes do. Very efficient predators of turkeys. If my DNR 1) reintroduced them when we were lucky enough to not have any and 2) wouldn't let me trap or shoot them, I would be pretty hot over it.

[Tail Feathers]

We all like to hear them gobble and yes we are our own worst enemies. It's all how fast and easy can I kill one. If we value what we have then we should do our best to protect it.  Our greed will be our downfall.
Sent from my SM-G800R4 using Tapatalk

I ran into a couple of guys on my hunting lease opening morning.  I was first to the spot they wanted.  Both were nice about it, going to hunt elsewhere...after telling me where their feeders were set up so I could hunt them.
It's illegal to bait turkeys here.  They've closed season on most counties around here, we'll be next after they slaughter our fragile population this way.

[g8rvet]

I feel your pain.  I get that way about duck hunting in North Florida, except it is the Army Corps of Engineers and Ducks Unlimited that disgust me.  I actually had a 5 day trip to hunt MS I had to cancel due to rain (can't get in the fields to hunt the snows when it is so muddy), so we stayed home and hunted.  After nearly getting swamped by a tournament fishing basshole and seeing NO ducks interested in working due to habitat degradation and overpressure, I said to heck with it and went to the coast and wore out the trout and reds. 

I have heard exactly 5 gobbling birds, all in 2 days here where I hunt.  There are birds though, it has been weather and bad luck for me.  But I am going in the morning, the home stretch is near.  I still like the walk in the woods, watching the hen peck my decoy until it falls over, hearing the woods wake up.  The older I get, the more I enjoy the process and with only 6 days left, I am not stressed at all.  If I eat tag soup, it serves me right for ending my season so quickly last year.  It happens. 

I don't hunt where you do, so I don't know your life.  Good luck though and I hope you find some birds willing to play and also rekindle your passion for the sport.  God Bless.

[turkeywhisperer935]

Thanks for the kind words, I quit duck hunting for about the same reasons you described. I used to hunt everything that moved around here till my rabbit dogs died and I got tired of duck hunting but I never thought it'd get like this with turkeys. By far my favorite game animal. I'd rather do it than eat or sleep but it's slowly gotten ruined in my area of the country.

[DTGobble]

I understand your frustration.  While I don't have the out of state hunters, the land leasing is what's going on here.  I have no problem with leasing land, but the sad fact is, if you don't lease land, there's not a lot left.  I can't blame the landowners, farming is all but dead here, so they're trying to make a buck any way they can.  The days of just getting permission to hunt is over.  I have questions about the NWTF to.  Where does the money go anyway?  I know several of the NWTF people come here to hunt with some prominent locals every year.  I guess I helped pay for that?  They have an auction/banquet every year, that I know brings in big money.  I'm sure they've helped the turkeys in other places, but zero here.  Not on public lands anyway.  The fields don't even get cut anymore (Army Corps of Engineers).  As a matter of fact, they're technically not even fields now. 

I know the game wardens have a tough job.  But, I really wish they'd catch the guys who shoot a dozen turkeys every year out of the truck window, instead of checking my license every time I hunt the same tract of public land. 

[Volgobbler]

What part of Tennessee are you in? I live and  hunt in West Tennessee and birds are plentiful. I do understand your frustration though.  I have access to  2 small properties and the birds are sometimes on my land and sometimes they are on the huge hunting lease next door. But i usually get one bird every  year and hear lots of gobbling either on my.spot or theirs

[catman529]

Turkey whisperer...

I hunt mostly Tennessee public land, and TWRA does a pretty good job managing the lands. Yes they do plant food plots, they lease fields to row croppers, they bush hog CRP fields, maintain access roads, have some really good hunting habitat for us to enjoy. I agree the out of state hunters can be a pain, but don't blame TWRA, those nonresident license sales help pay for the management of our public land.

As for the decline in turkeys, the main issue is the few southern Mid TN counties, and they just recently started a 5-year program GPS tracking flocks of birds in affected counties and surrounding counties as well.  They are trying to figure out the problem in the few counties that had unexplainable disappearance of turkeys.

Sorry to be blunt, but all you have said is a bunch of uneducated bull crap and you just want to put the blame on others for your own lack of success.