I see that Arkansas eliminated the Jake out the bag limit.

[jperrotti]

Gotcha. My whole point of this arguement is not so that I can shoot jakes. It's my hope that turkey hunting doesn't turn into deer hunting. I've deer hunted the last 3 years and not shot a buck in Louisiana because I never saw one big enough to meet our club's criteria.

I never belittle someone's kill. I tell my wife shoot whatever you want but don't regret shooting it when you walk up to it.

If a jake turkey come's in and I've had a bad season or I'm in the mood by god I like having the opportunity to kill him. Or if I'm taking someone who's only killed a few turkeys and jake comes in gobbling, I don't want to hold them off.

[Timber Chicken]

Last year I had four jakes on my property. My wife, my nephew and myself all had chances to kill them but we didn't by our own choice. One was even a Super Jake that strutted and gobbled like a 2 year old. Now I know they could be different birds, but this year I know have 4 strutters in the same field. I think I see the point AR is trying to accomplish.

[shootumindaface]

So lab seeings that they took hunter input and the effort is to increase adult gobbling birds in the population, they are seeking to increase hunter satisfaction.. I dont necessarily agree with their method, because beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but at least they are doing something to increase it..

But where I am lost is what is this going to do to tackle the bigger problem, low bird numbers overall.. Much like the states that have taken steps to increase older deer through MAR, the following year the number of 2.5 bucks increased in both population, but also in harvest.. Granted it did allow a smarter creature to carry on to 3.5, 4.5 etc etc.. But say 20 percent of the harvest is jakes and they are not shot, the next year 15 percent of such jakes are shot thus allowing for 5 percent more to mature beyond that leaving out other aspects of mortality.. Where does this get you?

The larger problem is not being tackled with this law... It is simply providing a false sense of more turkeys and thus a increase in hunter satisfaction until folks realize there is no more turkeys than there was to start..

[jperrotti]

Maybe they should do like some states do on deer hunting. Earn a gobbler. You must kill a coyote, coon, fox, bobcat or hog before you can kill a gobbler. That should get the nuisance population down.

[Shotgun]

I am from AR and have pushed very hard for this rule for the last 2 yrs.  There is plenty of reasoning behind it, but I have argued this topic to death on the AR forum so I'm going to pass.  Just glad we got it passed.

[shootumindaface]

Shotgun can you please explain in PM your reasoning..

[knightrider]

i would like a link to that forum  to see the 'reasons' that one male is more important than the other

[HogBiologist]

Knightrider, Jakes may be able to breed, but they usually dont.  If you remove breeding adults and leave nothing for next year, you have an issue.  They are to afraid to try to breed after they get whipped a few times.  By protecting them you allow them to carry over to the next year.  Adult birds are harder to kill.  I would be very willing to bet it is much harder to kill 2 adult birds than a jake and a gobbler.  It makes you work harder and the chances of kiling next years breeding crop decreases.  This has nothing to do with "he's to small".  There were several options presented to the public, this was their choice.  The public did not make "the decision"  rather they chose from the options.  The public in Ar would rather forego the jake than lower the bag limit.  Both were viable options but the pulpic made a choice.  I know you dont see the reasoning or may not understand the science behind the decision (purely my speculation and if I am wrong then my sencire appologies) but this decision was not just randomly plucked out of thin air.

"Jakes do gobble and strut. However, they are often afraid to, especially later in the spring after a dominant bird has whipped them a few times. "

[knightrider]

Knightrider, Jakes may be able to breed, but they usually dont.  If you remove breeding adults and leave nothing for next year, you have an issue.  They are to afraid to try to breed after they get whipped a few times.  By protecting them you allow them to carry over to the next year.  Adult birds are harder to kill.  I would be very willing to bet it is much harder to kill 2 adult birds than a jake and a gobbler.  It makes you work harder and the chances of kiling next years breeding crop decreases.  This has nothing to do with "he's to small".  There were several options presented to the public, this was their choice.  The public did not make "the decision"  rather they chose from the options.  The public in Ar would rather forego the jake than lower the bag limit.  Both were viable options but the pulpic made a choice.  I know you dont see the reasoning or may not understand the science behind the decision (purely my speculation and if I am wrong then my sencire appologies) but this decision was not just randomly plucked out of thin air.

"Jakes do gobble and strut. However, they are often afraid to, especially later in the spring after a dominant bird has whipped them a few times. "

you are correct i dont see the reasoning,dont get me wrong im starting to see what your saying after doing a bunch of searching on it, i just think from a management standpoint it would make more since to drop the baglimit then to say that someone that would be happy with one jake cant shoot it after buying their license,dont get me wrong i havnt shot a jake in 12 years but that is personall choice not because i cant,i love to see people kill whatever bird makes them happy.since this is in place it makes no matter anyways i just hope it helps

[drenalinld]

As an AR hunter, I support this measure. Youths 15 and under are still allowed to shoot a jake. Turkey numbers are way down here and this is only one of several steps meant to help the population recover. I don't think anyone thinks this by itself will fix anything, but if not shooting jakes reduces the number of gobblers harvested, it is some help.