Hunting pressure...... How does it affect your hunting area?

[WyoHunter]

In some areas I hunt the gobbling is much better earlier in the season than later in the season. In one area I hunt I haven't had a bird gobble even though I've seen lone gobblers and lone hens and have called in hens. I've noticed lots of droppings and some tracks in the area and killed a bird recently by stalking. This gobbler was feeding with another gobbler and three hens and wouldn't respond to any calling. Let's hear what your opinions are on the situation! 

[GobbleNut]

The same thing happens here on public land with our Merriams in southern NM.  Many of the easy gobblers get killed early in the season, which takes out a bunch of gobbling birds.  The ones that are left wise up pretty fast.  If they don't, they end up dead, as well. 

Our birds generally gobble well all the way to the end of the season, but the birds that are left are the older age-class birds that have been through it all enough times to know better than to approach turkey calling and some of the younger birds that managed to get through the initial onslaught. 

Around here, by the end of the season, we are killing one gobbler for every five to ten that were killed in the first week or two.  Some people think that waiting until the end of the season when there is less hunting pressure is a good idea.  Around here, that is a good way to end up frustrated and turkeyless,....that is if you want to kill one by having him come to your calling.

[Spring_Woods]

I don't know,I mean it really depends...I think.
I think the birds will still gobble the same, or slightly less but how they react to your calling depends on how pressured they are.

For instance, I'd say most public land birds have heard the three main calls; yelp, cluck, and cutting. In fact, I'd bet money on it. To kill those deeps words birds I think you have to either ambush them, or step on them and/or change your calling sequences to say "clucks only". Or just cluck and purr softly and 2-3 note yelps.

Last week of the season this year I watches a tom and two Jakes strut out on a gasline hump for about an hour and never make a peep. There was 2 hens with them as well. I think towards the end of the season, they aren't in the mood as much as the beginning, sometimes. That said, if there aren't any hens with them and the birds are pressured, it really just depends on the experiences they have had throughout the season. If your calling from a familiar SAFE spot then then the chances of them wandering your way are greater.

[BHhunter]

I have been getting the same results here in SD on National Forest land. The pressure has been getting really intense here the last 5 years and as the season wears on the birds get less vocal. Everyone tells me the end of the season is best when the gobblers are lonely as the hens go to nest, I sure haven't found that to be true. I have always had better luck the first couple weeks of the season. I too have found fresh tracks and gobbler droppings in my hunting areas, but they have been talking much less. Even in the morning I hear a few weak gobbles, but nothing like the festival I would hear the beginning of the season. The lack of gobbling entices me to grab the fly rod. I keep pressing on, but it's hard to stay motivated when the gobbling really slows like this.
But, with the weather we're having now they all drowned!

[Basin_hunter]

  Same here in Louisiana. After the second weekend of the season I never hear any more gobbling. There are alot of turkey hunters here that are really wanting to have the season pushed back, but I don't think it will really make a difference as far as gobbling goes. Most of the public areas I hunt have been hit hard by flooding the last few years and the poult survival has been down. I have noticed a dramatic decline in gobbling in these areas, probably because of very few 2 yr olds. I always hear way more gobbling in early March before the season opens while scouting. I hunt them hard the 1st 2 weeks of the season. Yes I do believe it is hunting pressure that ultimately gives them lock-jaw for late season. If all else fails set up an ambush.   

Good Luck

[TauntoHawk]

birds will alter their patterns and gobbling according to pressure. I observed a farm this year that has a lot of birds. Pre season and the first couple of days the birds would all gobble from a large patch of pines where they were roosted, pitch down and sail out into a large stretch of plowed and planted crop fields. (everyday) but after a few birds were shot in the fields they began to alter their patterns by dropping out of the tree on the upper pastures and walking down the hill to the fields giving more time to look for danger. by the second week of season after busting a few hunters before making it to the fields the birds were dropping out the back and walking up the mountain into the thick timber and some birds began roosting higher up the hill, they would then loaf for several hours silent and appear in the fields around 9 or 10am after the hunters had gone home.

If you've ever read Dr. Lovetts book "hunting pressured turkeys" he talks about how turkeys adjust and react to pressure but often dont leave like a deer would when faced with pressure they simply change or alter their day to day routines.. their moods have been somewhat soured by being bumped, ran into, shot at, and run out of the roost by hunters.

birds are still there, still bread, strutting, gobbling (sometimes) and generally doing their thing.. they just arent as open and free spirited once they've received pressure making traditional hunting tactics difficult.

late in the season my best tactics are late morning spot and stalk ambushes and slidding Extra close to the roost well before daylight (40yds if possible) * best done on wet rainy overcast mornings where walking is quiet and rain dropping from the trees covers other noises

[Spring Creek Calls]

IT SOUNDS LIKE THE SAME STORY ALL OVER THE COUNTRY, GOBBLING PEAK EARLY IN THE SEASON AND THEN THE DREADED LULL. I ALWAYS HUNT THE LATE SEASON HERE IN MI AS IT LETS ME HUNT THE WHOLE MONTH OF MAY. ONLY PROBLEM IS YOU ONLY GET 1 TAG. HERE, THAT LULL USUALLY MEANS A LITTLE GOBBLING ON THE ROOST THEN ALL GOES QUITE AFTER FLY DOWN. THAT'S ALWAYS BEEN A GOOD TIME FOR ME TO SLEEP IN AND GO OUT AROUND 10 AM. THE LAST 3 YEARS I'VE SHOT BIRDS HERE IN MI AT 2:30 PM, 11 AM AND 12:30 PM. ALL WERE MAY 15 OR LATER. IT CAN BE TOUGH, BUGS AND HEAT BUT IF YOU FIND A GOBBLING BIRD THE ODDS START TO TILT IN YOUR FAVOR. A FRIEND AND I USED THE SECOND SHIFT THEORY TO KILL SEVERAL PRESSURED GOBBLERS ON PUBLIC LAND IN NE MISSOURI, MOST BETWEEN 10 AM AND THEIR 12/1 PM CLOSING TIME. AS STATED EARLIER, MOST CAME IN WITHOUT A PEEP.

[stinkpickle]

Some of it may also be attributed to the breeding cycle.  I've hunted a couple private farms in the late season that had no early season pressure (or at least not that the landowners knew about), and similar gobbling lulls occurred.  In fact, I rarely heard any pre-flydown gobbles.  A few isolated ones popped every once-in-a-while after about 10am, or so.  Overall, I doubt the silence can be 100% attributed to pressure.  Two months is a lot of time to stay excited.   

[lohaus]

I think hunting pressure greatly affects the area I hunt.  Pretty much our country blocks are usually 1 mile from stop sign to stop sign.  In three of those blocks around my family's area there are driveways that can drive anywhere from 1/3 mile to 1/2 mile back basically in the middle of the block.  Well, once the season starts it ended up being a constant flow of trucks driving down those driveways out in the open to see if they can get on a bird.  Some of these guys get out, walk in the middle of the field, crouched Elmer Fudd style to get to a bird and take 80 yard plus shots.  If you are driving down the main road, not the farmer path mind you, and even slow down those birds turn around and bust toward the woods.  For me, it makes it better because I'm willing to walk to the middle in the area absent of driveways/paths where the lazy guy doesn't want to venture far from his truck.  Plus, with the pressure on those 3 blocks I didn't even hunt them very much, mainly for safety concern.  If you can see them from the road, then chances are so can everybody else.  Bad weather?  I'm out there because everybody else just about stays in.

[KryptoniteKills]

Without a doubt there is more gobbling earlier in the year here (New York) also. I also think there are a combination of factors that lend to the drop-off in gobbling, hunting pressure being the main one. But a close second I would say would be that the hens are bred and sitting on the nest. Our season starts May 1, well after the birds get ramped up, and by the end of the second week many of the hens I see in the start of the season are no longer there. The Toms know this and therefore gobble less. Just my opinion but it seems to work this way year after year.

[chatterbox]

I'm a firm believer that hunting pressure has alot to do with it, but not all.
We had a pretty decent start to the season, but at week 3 we got cold rainy weather. This put a huge kibosh to the gobbling.
By the last week when the hens were nesting, the gobbles on the roost were still fairly regular, but gobbling on the ground was almost non-existant.
So I feel weather has as much to do with the gobbling lull as serious hunting pressure. But on public land, high pressure hunting is as certain as death and taxes. 

[TauntoHawk]

we make these birds out to be smarter than they really are, we act like these birds figure out our calls after a few weeks with their walnut sized brains.

when the bucks stop chasing we dont say its hunting pressure we say the ruts ending, same with turkeys it all depends on the breading cycle.

[redleg06]

Some of it may also be attributed to the breeding cycle.  I've hunted a couple private farms in the late season that had no early season pressure (or at least not that the landowners knew about), and similar gobbling lulls occurred.  In fact, I rarely heard any pre-flydown gobbles.  A few isolated ones popped every once-in-a-while after about 10am, or so.  Overall, I doubt the silence can be 100% attributed to pressure.  Two months is a lot of time to stay excited.  

I think this has a lot to do with it and also the fact that alot of the vocal/co-operative birds get killed early in the season and the birds that are left are old and or less aggressive at gobbling and coming into the call...thus making them harder to hunt.

Just like some humans are more vocal than others, as is the case with dogs ( I train retrievers and each one has their own personality) and just about any other animal you could name.  

It makes sense that the birds that are more aggressive and vocal will get culled out first because they are easier to kill as a result of their individual personalities. The birds that are naturally less aggressive/ less vocal end up living longer.

Ive hunted private properties before that have gone un-hunted in the years prior to my gaining access and witnessed plenty of birds that are subordinate/less aggressive/less vocal  even though they have never been "educated" by hunting pressure.  

The question in my mind is, are these turkey quiet because they are wise old birds with years of education due to pressure OR are they quiet by nature which has resulted in them living longer?  

[gunnerj]

To the original question of how does pressure affect my hunting area. The birds get call shy, decoy shy and slow their approach often vearing 30 to 40 yards before the decoys and going around. 

[gunnerj]

we make these birds out to be smarter than they really are, we act like these birds figure out our calls after a few weeks with their walnut sized brains.

when the bucks stop chasing we dont say its hunting pressure we say the ruts ending, same with turkeys it all depends on the breading cycle.

With turkeys it's all action and reaction. That's about all the walnut can compute. Their first reaction to getting bumped is running and hiding. They get bumped too many times they'll move out and won't leave a forwarding address. How many times? Some times just once. There are too many variables from changes in habitat, pressure, weather, etc. to come up with a definitive answer on why turkeys are turkeys. I can give you a guarantee for 2012. It'll be a whole new ball game again! Good luck with the new puzzle!