Hunting numbers down?

[shatcher]

Sign of the times, OG.  It's unfortunate.

[REBELYELL]

Way more hunters and way more predators = way less turkeys. Man, I miss the 80's. Heck, I miss 10 years ago.

[mikejd]

I havent run in to another turkey hunter in about 3 yrs in my area of NY. Matter of fact last yr I never heard another hunter even shoot. Mike

Same here. What part of NY. And how are the bird numbers by you.

lol don't answer that

You can't spot burn NY. There are no hunters here and very few birds. I'll give you my parking spot location if you want. No one is coming.

[LaLongbeard]

The line of (NWTF) thinking that we don't have enough turkey hunters is a thing of the past. There are so many turkeys hunters here in the south that the hunting will never be what it was. We hunt on private ground and spend most of the season trying to keep people off of the land. If you have gobbling turkeys on your land you can believe that some one is hunting them if you aren't there. That has become standard language down here. There were arrests of people, won't call them hunters, arrested for killing in excess of 100 gobblers. They were going in and feeding on private ground and 4-6 were shooting every turkey they could when the turkeys would come into feed. If you don't think there are enough turkey hunters just go hunt Mark Twain National Forest and see how many people you see from the South. It's ridiculous and I'm from the South. Hunters down here hunt for a month and a half and then travel to harvest turkeys in as many places as they can get to. Check out The Hunting Public and The Pinhoti Project. I know a whole lot of turkey hunters that hunt just like that but don't have a camera man following them around.
The God given right to hunt is not going anywhere, people need to get over their fear. There are people with a whole lot of money and power that will make sure it doesn't. For the next four years, namely Trump and his oldest son that is an avid hunter . Turkey hunting resources are dwindling because of too many hunters. Believe it. Trapping and transporting is a practice used to try and combat over harvest. We are there again in many areas. We used to hear 30-40 turkeys gobble in a morning in the 80's and 90's. Struggle to find one now and lucky to hear two or three. That isn't because there aren't enough hunters.

Exactly
The only ones that believe or keep quoting "we need more Turkey hunters" are delusional, or hunt some tiny private lease and are thrilled to kill a single Gobbler every other year and spend most of their time collecting calls or fishing. Anybody that actually gets out and really hunts public land knows the last thing we need is more people.   

[bonasa]

How many hunters take kids small game hunting. How many dads going small game hunting now?

I have had the kids helping with breaking pointers by flushing grouse and woodcock or firing blanks since they were 3.5 years old. Same for bringing them along in the duck blind, turkey blind and short sits in the squirrel woods. They love water trapping and checking land sets with binos from the truck. Might be strange to some but it's just what we do and have always done.

[longbeards]

The reason I go out of my way to hunt private land!!

[Cut N Run]

This year I heard more shots from more places that never used to get turkey hunted.  I also had trespassers mess me up (twice) this Spring.  That never used to happen around those properties. The number of people hunting turkeys went WAY up compared to the average because so many were home off work from COVID-19.  Judging by what I heard, the number of poor callers and clueless hunters also went way up.  I had a guy & his son come riding down the horse trail (on the farm I have exclusive hunting rights on) on a four wheeler with the lights on less than 10 minutes from when the turkeys usually start to gobble.  When I stepped out onto the trail, they fled off the other side of the property (still trespassing) and rode down along the bottom where the gobbler I was after preferred to roost.  Of course I heard nothing that morning.

I suspect next year will give a better idea what the future might hold.

Jim

[Gentry]

The line of (NWTF) thinking that we don't have enough turkey hunters is a thing of the past. There are so many turkeys hunters here in the south that the hunting will never be what it was. We hunt on private ground and spend most of the season trying to keep people off of the land. If you have gobbling turkeys on your land you can believe that some one is hunting them if you aren't there. That has become standard language down here. There were arrests of people, won't call them hunters, arrested for killing in excess of 100 gobblers. They were going in and feeding on private ground and 4-6 were shooting every turkey they could when the turkeys would come into feed. If you don't think there are enough turkey hunters just go hunt Mark Twain National Forest and see how many people you see from the South. It's ridiculous and I'm from the South. Hunters down here hunt for a month and a half and then travel to harvest turkeys in as many places as they can get to. Check out The Hunting Public and The Pinhoti Project. I know a whole lot of turkey hunters that hunt just like that but don't have a camera man following them around.
The God given right to hunt is not going anywhere, people need to get over their fear. There are people with a whole lot of money and power that will make sure it doesn't. For the next four years, namely Trump and his oldest son that is an avid hunter . Turkey hunting resources are dwindling because of too many hunters. Believe it. Trapping and transporting is a practice used to try and combat over harvest. We are there again in many areas. We used to hear 30-40 turkeys gobble in a morning in the 80's and 90's. Struggle to find one now and lucky to hear two or three. That isn't because there aren't enough hunters.
To the poster in NY. Where do you hunt in NY? You have turkeys? You need some more turkey hunters? We can send them that way next spring. I see there are some coordinates up there. We will drop them right into OnXhunt. See you in the Spring.

Tom Kelly/ 10th Legion: Great book for the turkey hunter.

Exactly!


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[yelpaholic]

It was a perfect storm this year against the turkeys that's for sure . For all the reasons mentioned already especially in Mississippi   Only hope is a good hatch for a couple years .. I personally didn't see a lot of Jakes this year .