Way to go Alabama!

[Stoeger_bird]

Its great seeing a state being proactive and makimg changes that need to be made! State wide opening will help spread some pressure out and no decoys for the first 10 days same some birds for sure!  Hope some other states are taking notes!

[Turkeytider]

I certainly think that there will be variations from state to state, but I think that the `22 season will see changes in most, if not all, of the Southeastern states.

[silvestris]

If banning decoys for the first ten days is good, and it is good, then what is different for the rest of the season.  I am confused.

[Dtrkyman]

If banning decoys for the first ten days is good, and it is good, then what is different for the rest of the season.  I am confused.

Just giving the birds a better chance to breed and allowing more guys a crack at those birds I would guess.

Kind of like Missouri only allowing a single bird the first week and only one per day the second 2 weeks.

[Turkeytider]

If banning decoys for the first ten days is good, and it is good, then what is different for the rest of the season.  I am confused.

Just giving the birds a better chance to breed and allowing more guys a crack at those birds I would guess.

Kind of like Missouri only allowing a single bird the first week and only one per day the second 2 weeks.

I think that`s it. Trying to reduce the harvest in the very earliest part of the season to promote enhanced breeding without necessarily delaying the start of the entire season. Biologists will tell you that after hens are bred ( and it`s good to maximize the number of hens bred ), the toms become something akin to drone bees. Much more " expendable ".  If the dominant toms are removed relatively early in the breeding cycle, or if they`re removed before a maximum number of hens are bred, it can interfere with the breeding cycle. The hens go through a selection process. If that process is disrupted ( dominant tom killed ), she`s got to go through an entire selection process. Another tom doesn`t just automatically breed her. Some hens may not breed in cases such as this, thus reducing clutch numbers.

[owlhoot]

If banning decoys for the first ten days is good, and it is good, then what is different for the rest of the season.  I am confused.

It is confusing

Just giving the birds a better chance to breed and allowing more guys a crack at those birds I would guess.

Kind of like Missouri only allowing a single bird the first week and only one per day the second 2 weeks.

Yep , but Missouri population is down over 50 percent too and season doesn't start until 3rd week in April. North or south MO. doesn't matter.

[Parrot Head]

If Mississippi stays at March 15th they will get hammered every year.   They will make a boat load of money but the turkeys  will pay the price.

[3bailey3]

yes i sure wish my home state, MS. would move it back to March 25 or thur the 28!

[owlhoot]

yes i sure wish my home state, MS. would move it back to March 25 or thur the 28!

Better move it to April 15. Enhance that breeding, so them hens don't get confused on who is supposed to breed them...

[deerhunt1988]

Glad to see it! The public land pressure will definitely be better spread out. Folks were jumping around with the staggered opening dates on WMAs and zone differences. Don't know why someone would feel the need to kill 5 birds in a state... Get a few, if you need more, go to the next state.. A lot of the deer hunters recently turned turkey hunters crowd won't be near as successful those first 10 days without decoys. More gobblers on the landscape to help ensure the deed is done.

Sure does suck for Mississippi public land though. Will be record sales of non-resident licenses next year.

[Kyle_Ott]

I don't have a stake in the southeast's current situation but I know there's a portion of turkey hunters who seem to be the only fools on earth who don't believe that bag limit reductions and shortened seasons would help more turkeys survive each year.

When goose or duck numbers go down, USFWS reduce the limits and shorten the seasons.  When whitetail deer numbers go down, state agencies decrease the bag limits.  Wild turkey numbers were highest when we had considerably fewer hunters killing them.

There are too many examples of well managed private lands where harvest management is implemented with public land pieces immediately adjacent to them to dispute the efficacy of harvest reduction.  The better hunting is simply across the line on private.  It's not this great mystery as to why the higher quality hunting is on the private.  It's because they don't have every Tom, Dick and Harry filling their limits over there.  Clearly, part of the solution to the wild turkey's decline, particularly on public ground, is to simply reduce the number of turkeys Tom, Dick and Harry can kill on public lands

I have listened to multiple podcasts with popular turkey hunting figures who want to fight bag limit reductions/shortened seasons and I've read hundreds of comments on Facebook boards fighting against these ideas.  Meanwhile, these guys are all running around public lands filling their limits promoting public land as it continues to become depleted.....

The status quo is simply not working in most parts of the country and I'm glad to see AL taking steps in the right direction.  I have some friends who are stakeholders down there who lobbied hard for a 3 bird bag limit and a March 25th start date; they were optimistic that some change was implemented instead of maintaining the status quo but the fight is not over.

While I agree that population decline is a multi-dimensional issue, what's best for the wild turkey certainly isn't good for the turkey hunter right now.  Contrary to popular opinion, these are mutually exclusive things and there are some guys in this community who need to start to realize that.  I'll be in a southern state next week and I'll be happy to kill one turkey(instead of 2) and drive home; I think the turkeys would be a whole lot better off if more people did the same. 

[owlhoot]

Glad to see it! The public land pressure will definitely be better spread out. Folks were jumping around with the staggered opening dates on WMAs and zone differences. Don't know why someone would feel the need to kill 5 birds in a state... Get a few, if you need more, go to the next state.. A lot of the deer hunters recently turned turkey hunters crowd won't be near as successful those first 10 days without decoys. More gobblers on the landscape to help ensure the deed is done.

Sure does suck for Mississippi public land though. Will be record sales of non-resident licenses next year.

Oh yeah that's right.  Alabama is plenty close to Mississippi.

[Jstocks]

yes i sure wish my home state, MS. would move it back to March 25 or thur the 28!

Agreed.

[Candyman]

yes i sure wish my home state, MS. would move it back to March 25 or thur the 28!

I agree. Changes are coming too but I don't know what they are. There are a lot of "things" on the table right now but no decision will be made without good data to back up the change.   MS will continue to see a huge influx of non residents early in the season.

[trkehunr93]

Pay the price now or pay it later when it costs more.  What I mean is if we don't make the changes we need to make now to preserve the turkey populations we have we will being paying a bigger price later.  Just my 2 cents. 


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