Mississippi public land turkey hunting 2021

[MShillhunter]

Just spent the first 11 days of the season in Mississippi.  Between the weather,  pressure and just how early it felt in the season.. I struggled a ton. I heard 5 gobbles on day 2. 2 gobbles on day 7. And finally found a bird that wanted to talk a little more on day 10, he was with a boat load of hens that didn't like me so I didn't push the issue and was able to get between him and his hens yesterday morning and finally kill him.. and he didn't gobble at all yesterday. So in 11 days, I heard gobbling on 3 of them. That's pretty rough from this Yankee's perspective, and it wasn't that there weren't birds where I was hunting, they just didn't seem ready.  I hunted 3 very different parts of the state hoping things would be different with a relocation, but the story seemed very similar everywhere and with everyone I talked to.

I agree the season just seems to start too early. In hindsight I wish I would have gone in April. But with the extra pressure from all us nonresidents pushing to get it done before the birds are ready, not to mention they had already been hunted the week before hand for youth season, it's no wonder Mississippi birds have a reputation of being tough. They're getting a hell of an education before they're even in the mood. The resident guys I talked to seemed to be more taking inventory and seeing where everyone was focused on hunting vs pushing them before it was time.

That said I was very impressed with the etiquette demonstrated by others around me. Not once did I have someone come in on me and everyone I met was extremely helpful and even made some friends I bet I'll keep contact with for sometime. Also got a really sweet box call given to me by a us forestry service guy that I thought was really cool.

Beautiful state and I enjoyed my time there despite the challenges. But I sure am glad to have checked the state off.

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That's cool! Congrats on the bird. Sounds like it was well deserved. 

I finally got on the board this morning.  My red dot died and had to shoot him without it.  Luckily he was about 12 steps so I put it a little lower than normal to give myself some room for error.


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[3bailey3]

congrats on the bird and the box call, do you know who made the box and when was is made?

[derek]

congrats on the bird and the box call, do you know who made the box and when was is made?

Thank you. Unfortunately I don't have any more info on it than you can see on the lid and that the gentleman from the forestry service said "they give us these to hand out to people".. class act in my book.

Congrats to all that have been successful.

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[Howie g]

I sure hope they make some changes . I drive through a good portion of public on a regular basis. The hunter numbers are way up and the turkey population is way down . IMO the season needs to be backed up until atleast the 25 th or later . I'd be fine with a limit drop also . I see more yotes and coons cross roads then turkeys now .
I know some top notch hunters that are struggling just to find a gobbler to hunt ...

[quavers59]

   I have been following this Thread for awhile now. I thi k the best solution would be for the Top Wildlife Agency people from AR,MS,LA,AL,GA, + SC get together  and work out a Spring Season Opening Day that is more days away or on the very same day as these 6 States above.
   And each State should lower their Bag limit by 1 Bird. The States with 2 Bird limit should remain there.
     

[deadbuck]

Your assessment of the situation is spot on, but too many egos and politics involved for that to happen.

[arkrem870]

Feeling the growing pains of loose lips..... thank your YouTube/social media heros for pimping out traveling turkey hunting.  The bell has been rung

[silent tom]

A lot of people were jumping up and down 5 or so years ago, saying we need more hunters.
These you tubers all came along in about a 2 year time span, justifying creating a public land fad/traveling hunter as being good stewards of the sport.
Well guess what guys and gals- we are now looking down the barrel of more regulations, lower limits, more restrictive permit type hunts, less opportunities and time in the field.   

There were a few of us that saw this coming and said something where we could. We were mostly called selfish. To all those people now, you can kiss my ***.
Youtubers know what they've done.   Look at the precautions they are taking this year to avoid showing spots.  They've seen these threads whether they reply or not. But the damage is done.

Are you tubers the only culprit? Absolutely not, but have been the biggest negative influence in the past few years. We don't need a hunter behind every tree on our public lands. 

[sasquatch1]

The pressure where I hunt is 3x normal, to the point you can't hardly move around mid day

Every gate is taken

I've found success but it's mostly from being familiar with the place. I've had the most gobble less days of any season

Our public birds can't handle this pressure long term

We need to acquire more public lands


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[deerhunt1988]

A lot of people were jumping up and down 5 or so years ago, saying we need more hunters.
These you tubers all came along in about a 2 year time span, justifying creating a public land fad/traveling hunter as being good stewards of the sport.
Well guess what guys and gals- we are now looking down the barrel of more regulations, lower limits, more restrictive permit type hunts, less opportunities and time in the field.   

There were a few of us that saw this coming and said something where we could. We were mostly called selfish. To all those people now, you can kiss my ***.
Youtubers know what they've done.   Look at the precautions they are taking this year to avoid showing spots.  They've seen these threads whether they reply or not. But the damage is done.

Are you tubers the only culprit? Absolutely not, but have been the biggest negative influence in the past few years. We don't need a hunter behind every tree on our public lands.

100% spot on

To all my acquaintances that are YouTube fanboys, I simply tell 'em "Told ya so!"

[Prohunter3509]

Look guys this didnt start with utubers the sport channels on T.v. made it a business that's when hunting went south , to me. Everybody started trying to be like whoever
There hunting guru was on tv.
Yeah the public land you can blame on utubers.
And I myself like to watch utube tky. Hunting. But i was hunting public before the internet was invented.
Will i reckon i vented and got off track sorry about that
But i blame the tv and all the hunting channels that messed it all up.

[sasquatch1]

Look guys this didnt start with utubers the sport channels on T.v. made it a business that's when hunting went south , to me. Everybody started trying to be like whoever
There hunting guru was on tv.
Yeah the public land you can blame on utubers.
And I myself like to watch utube tky. Hunting. But i was hunting public before the internet was invented.
Will i reckon i vented and got off track sorry about that
But i blame the tv and all the hunting channels that messed it all up.

People lack confidence to strike out blind and try something. The attitude is usually "ehh I'll just waste my time" so they never try

Kind of like how when you go kill something THEN all your friends wanna go with you. They never ask to go with you on a blind adventure.

That's what kept a lot of people from trying public land. The motto is it's "terrible hunting" anyway

The youtubers proved to the masses it is possible to have good hunts with video proof. Then went farther to let ppl know where they were at. This made them gain confidence to go to these places.

"Oh damn there's gobbling birds all over that place. We must go"

That is what separates the YouTube's from the old hunting tv shows. The tv shows were all on big private places so it was just to watch and dream about. There was nothing to chase behind after the hunting show vids. Everyone knew they couldn't hunt there so it was just tv entertainment.


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[silent tom]

Look guys this didnt start with utubers the sport channels on T.v. made it a business that's when hunting went south , to me. Everybody started trying to be like whoever
There hunting guru was on tv.
Yeah the public land you can blame on utubers.
And I myself like to watch utube tky. Hunting. But i was hunting public before the internet was invented.
Will i reckon i vented and got off track sorry about that
But i blame the tv and all the hunting channels that messed it all up.

People lack confidence to strike out blind and try something. The attitude is usually "ehh I'll just waste my time" so they never try

Kind of like how when you go kill something THEN all your friends wanna go with you. They never ask to go with you on a blind adventure.

That's what kept a lot of people from trying public land. The motto is it's "terrible hunting" anyway

The youtubers proved to the masses it is possible to have good hunts with video proof. Then went farther to let ppl know where they were at. This made them gain confidence to go to these places.

"Oh damn there's gobbling birds all over that place. We must go"

That is what separates the YouTube's from the old hunting tv shows. The tv shows were all on big private places so it was just to watch and dream about. There was nothing to chase behind after the hunting show vids. Everyone knew they couldn't hunt there so it was just tv entertainment.


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Hammer meet nail. The audience being reached via social media platforms is a whole different animal than Primos VHS tapes.

[Prohunter3509]

It did turn it into a business
And we lost a lot in that process
It went from sport to a money game including primos and all the others

[dirtnap]

A lot of people were jumping up and down 5 or so years ago, saying we need more hunters.
These you tubers all came along in about a 2 year time span, justifying creating a public land fad/traveling hunter as being good stewards of the sport.
Well guess what guys and gals- we are now looking down the barrel of more regulations, lower limits, more restrictive permit type hunts, less opportunities and time in the field.   

There were a few of us that saw this coming and said something where we could. We were mostly called selfish. To all those people now, you can kiss my ***.
Youtubers know what they've done.   Look at the precautions they are taking this year to avoid showing spots.  They've seen these threads whether they reply or not. But the damage is done.

This is all very true.

Are you tubers the only culprit? Absolutely not, but have been the biggest negative influence in the past few years. We don't need a hunter behind every tree on our public lands.