How many turkeys is too many

[Hook hanger]

How many turkeys do you shoot a year on average? Is it 1-5, 6-10, 10-15, 16-20, or 20+?

I was discussing this with a friend this week and wondering if there is a time when we say thats killing enough this year. Whats some of your guys thoughts on this? Is there an amount to say you have killed too many for the year?

[joey46]

1-5 for the last several years.  There was a time in the early 1990s when I hunted three states in both the spring and fall and that number went up - way up.  Now just hunt Florida in the spring as a resident. 

[Spring Creek Calls]

I'm in the 1-5 category. I would like to see all states adopt a maximum 2 bird limit.

[joey46]

I'm in the 1-5 category. I would like to see all states adopt a maximum 2 bird limit.

AND a one bird non-resident limit to go along with that.

[Meleagris gallopavo]

1-5 for me in 2 states.  I'd say let turkey populations in each state dictate season limits for residents and non-residents.  If there's a big difference in turkey populations within a state use zones to determine season start time, length of season and limits.


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[HookedonHooks]

Too many would be over your legal limit, a fella hitting the road hard with a little luck on his side, and tag money in his pocket could push that 20 number real close. I think the majority of turkey hunters kill 1-3 turkeys a year, and traveling turkey hunters probably a majority of those guys kill around 5-7, give or take the amount of travel/determination.

I usually shoot about 5 a year the last few years.

[quavers59]

   I am down to 2 a year or so.
  Turkeys are very scarce now in North New Jersey.In New York- just so many more hunters out in the Spring.
 

[neal]

I've been 16-20 for quite a few years, fortunately I'm self employed and can literally leave for a month at a time if I want. . One year I killed 27 between spring and fall. I put all of those tailfans on the wall. Makes for a cool display


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[Yoder409]

Generally, I'm a 1-5 guy.

I try to hunt 2 or 3 states each spring (including my own 2 bird state).  But, I'm also NOT the guy who'll go outta state and buy every tag I'm allowed and fill it.  Just because I'm far from home and hunting "somebody else's birds" doesn't necessarily make me feel obligated to limit out. 

[GobbleNut]

I'm in the 1-5 category. I would like to see all states adopt a maximum 2 bird limit.

I am also in the same 1-5 category,...and I am also a proponent of a two-bird season limit across the board. 

...As usual, i will expand on that philosophy a bit...   

Way back when,...when spring gobbler seasons were just kicking in around the country, I was a young, college-educated wildlife biologist.  I also quickly fell in love with spring gobbler hunting after trying it a few times.  Here in New Mexico, we started out with a very short, limited-permit hunt with a one-gobbler bag limit. 

After a few years, a handful of us wildlife-educated folks were getting together when our state NWTF board would meet and we would talk about turkey hunting, and the relatively-new spring season, in particular.  The same theme kept coming up.  Why, when wild turkeys have such a high reproductive potential, as well as a relatively short life span, are we only allowing spring gobbler hunters to kill just one gobbler?  The entire theory of spring gobbler hunting revolves around there being surplus gobblers,...gobblers not needed for successful breeding,...and we were all asking what the logic was behind managing wild turkeys like we manage mammalian, big-game species that have a much lower reproductive potential?  Biologically speaking, it did not make much sense.

So, under the NWTF banner (yes, there are some real benefits to being in an organized group with some clout), we started lobbying our G&F Department to increase the spring limit to two gobblers.  The reason for that was NOT necessarily to kill more turkeys. It was to give turkey hunters more hunting opportunity if they happened to get lucky and kill a gobbler early in the season.  Hunters would not have to make the choice between passing up an early-season gobbler and being able to continue to hunt.  They could harvest one bird, and continue hunting for ONE more.  In essence, we were advocating for increasing hunting opportunity while still maintaining some level of a quality turkey hunt by not getting crazy with liberal bag limits that would most likely eventually lead to depleted gobbler numbers,...a concern that I believe has clearly been demonstrated over time in those states that decided to treat their turkeys like quail and doves, or ducks and geese.

Over time, and with much debate, our G&F Commission finally gave in and NM began to "experiment" with a two-gobbler limit in areas of the state,...and eventually we went to a statewide two-bird limit.  As much as I like turkey hunting, and as much as I was a vocal proponent of the two-bird limit here, I would NEVER advocate for shooting more than that here.  In my opinion, the two-gobbler limit is all about providing hunting opportunity while minimizing impact on the resource.  It is not about providing hunters the chance for adding up a big body count.

Granted, there was a time in areas of the country where the very liberal bag limits proved to not be an issue.  I would submit that, at this point in time, we should all recognize that in a lot of those places, times have changed.  There are fewer turkeys,...and more turkey hunters. We need to put the pieces together to solve that problem.

In the meantime, anybody that needs more turkeys to eat? ...Go to the grocery store!   

[deadbuck]

3 a year for me, I care nothing about travelling out of state to kill a turkey that is much easier to kill than my local ones and would rather spend that money on adding a new gun to the collection or upgrading my other hunting gear. Once you have killed 100 or so turkeys it isnt as big of a deal. I have no problem with other folks doing it though if they eat every bite of every turkey they kill and are not just giving them away and wasting them.

[Tom007]

I hunt several different parcels in 2 States. Numbers are not my thing, I enjoy everything involved with turkey hunting and worry about it's future, thus I am careful in harvesting birds on these parcels. I have walked out in several of them with a Tom in my bag hearing gobblers on the way out. I choose not to return to that parcel till the following season knowing there should be one there. This is my way of preserving these areas for future hunts, kind of my own way of controlling the population. Bagging my first trophy Tom each year is what I strive for. Anything after that is an added bonus to me. I usually hunt around 25 days per season, daybreak till noon. I can only hope we have this great resource available to all of us for generations to come.....

[Dtrkyman]

6-15 depending on the year, was averaging 8 or so I guess.  Multiple states obviously and rarely ever killed a bird on the same property in the same state.

One year a friend of mine and I guided for 21 straight days with one on one clients, no clue how many I saw taken that season?  What did we do the day after all of that, went hunting of course, we both killed a bird that day!

[Muzzy61]

We have a two bird season, I'm a one to two guy.

[fallhnt]

1-3 spring and fall

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