The Solution

[quavers59]

  Hookedonspurs- I can't  imagine 1 Turkey Hunter taking 20 Gobblers in a Spring Season. I am sure quite a few Turkey Hunters in New Jersey take a Bunch each Spring as well.
   That will cut way down the number of Mature Gobblers you may hear out there.

[CALLM2U]

I was reading through TN's turkey data the other day and it showed an AVG of 6.5 Poults per brood in the 1990s.  Now it's below 3.5. 

If you add in an extra 3 poults for every sitting hen, you're way above and beyond anything hunters are taking out of the population. 

Some really quick numbers:
Roughly 150,000 hens, and say 40% of them have poults. 
That's 180,000 extra poults. 

TN hunters take about 30,000 each year. 

[owlhoot]

It is going to take a major die off ...................of turkey"hunters".  "We have met the enemy, and it is us,"

simple, stop all out of state turkey hunting. residents only. reduce hunter numbers real quick. How'd that be.

[Loyalist84]

Or better yet, allow non-resident hunters but mandate the hiring of a local guide or outfitter.

[Meleagris gallopavo]

It is going to take a major die off ...................of turkey"hunters".  "We have met the enemy, and it is us,"

simple, stop all out of state turkey hunting. residents only. reduce hunter numbers real quick. How'd that be.

I think that would suck like hell.  I live in Virginia but do most of my hunting 20 minutes away in NC on my land, on family land, and on hunting club land that I pay dues to every year. 

[Pluffmud]

Hey, I heard Great Britain is looking for people who want to be regulated strictly in every aspect of their lives. You can always just move there instead of bringing stricter regs here?

[Meleagris gallopavo]

Or better yet, allow non-resident hunters but mandate the hiring of a local guide or outfitter.

I don't think much of this either for reason stated in my last post.  NO WAY IN HELL am I gonna pay a guide to hunt land I know better than they do.  Absolute nonsense.

[HookedonHooks]

Or better yet, allow non-resident hunters but mandate the hiring of a local guide or outfitter.

Put the pipe down and keep dreaming. Sounds like you got run over by nonresidents on your local public this year, maybe you need a safe space to cry in since they killed all "your birds".

[Meleagris gallopavo]

It is obvious the best two things we can do for wildlife is habitat management and predator control/trapping. More restrictions is not the answer.

I like this answer the best.

[jpc1317]

I'm from one of the hardest hit states in the south when it comes to early season hunting. I would like to see no blinds or decoys the first week or two of the season which Alabama is doing the no decoys. I think this will cut down on some birds being killed in the first week which will lead to more breeding. 

Also, I would call myself a weekend warrior who only gets to hunt weekends and an occasional week day so I would like to see a limit to out of state tags/licenses for at least the first two weeks of the season. When I drive down a road on an early season morning, I may be the only Alabama tag for miles while everyone else is out of state.  This would probably lead to less birds killed in the state and more birds for the future. I know that will tick a lot of out of state people off, but Alabama has to fix the turkey problem for their people before worrying about the out of state people wanting to hunt.

Before someone says, "well the state will lose too much money."  I would happily pay 25-30 dollars for a tag if Alabama wanted to start something like that.

[Tom007]

I have been following the harvest and Average Brood size in New Jersey for several years. The Average Brood Size has been less than 3 the past 4 years since 2016. There are several factors for this. Weather, predators, etc. The yearly harvest has been relatively consistent, between 2800 and 3000 birds. Our population has been running around 23,000 birds. Even during the COVID year, there were only around 100 bird more harvest than the year before. I found birds this year pre-season scouting and ended up with a fairly successful season. Gobbling activity was scarce, the birds were tough. The weather was colder than usual. It will be interesting to see how many birds are harvested this year. Most of my turkey hunting buddies had a tough time. I feel that the average brood size is a key factor on yearly harvests. The fact that they numbers have been under 3 the past 4 years is concerning. The factors causing this must be studied, and whatever corrective actions needed should be implemented. I am in favor of any and all actions needed to protect this great resource for us all to enjoy for generations to come....

[Loyalist84]

Or better yet, allow non-resident hunters but mandate the hiring of a local guide or outfitter.

Put the pipe down and keep dreaming. Sounds like you got run over by nonresidents on your local public this year, maybe you need a safe space to cry in since they killed all "your birds".

Just for the record, I've actually never met a non-resident hunter yet in my province, but I also only hunt private land since that's all there is in my area. The only neighbouring province I could turkey hunt in, though, carries a guide restriction for all non-resident hunting, not just turkeys. Just chipping in on how it works north of the border - if I came off as bitter it wasn't intended. You'd probably tell me to put the pipe down if I told you it cost $180 for a non-resident turkey license there too, but that's the going rate. Nevermind that they're the only province within a 40 hour drive of me that offers non-resident turkey hunting.

[tazmaniac]

IF the season dates are set correctly (opening the season AFTER the majority of hens have been bred and nests initiated), and jakes are protected to breed all the hens the following spring, there is ZERO reason to even have a limit on mature gobblers other than to spread the resource around for several hunters.  You can literally kill every single adult male every year and not negatively affect the population.

One of the problems is, the season opens in many locales well before breeding has even started.  In those cases, removing any gobblers can have a negative effect on the overall population.

The greatest problem is hens are simply not rearing enough poults to sustain the population.  The reason why is the million dollar question....

Sent from my SM-G970U1 using Tapatalk

[saltysenior]

  if the number of hunters and season dates were the problem , many state parks that do not allow hunting would be over run w/ turkeys......low brood sizes , live poult counts and barren hens are a concern that could have many reasons....however not much discussion on here about large populations in an area that suddenly disappear....if an outbreak of a disease can wipe out the majority of a large flock, which many here have observed , it can also do harm on a smaller scale

[owlhoot]

  if the number of hunters and season dates were the problem , many state parks that do not allow hunting would be over run w/ turkeys......low brood sizes , live poult counts and barren hens are a concern that could have many reasons....however not much discussion on here about large populations in an area that suddenly disappear....if an outbreak of a disease can wipe out the majority of a large flock, which many here have observed , it can also do harm on a smaller scale

Good point.
State parks cant be hunted in MO.KS. and Iowa for the most part , populations way down too.
Have a disease in mind that may cause this?