States With A 1 Male Or Bearded Turkey Bag Limit.

[quavers59]

   So,I just checked out the NWTF- Spring Turkey Bag Limits by State. And,I come up with 16 States that have a 1 Male or Bearded Turkey Limit.
  My personal opinion is that is a great disservice  to the Hunters of those States. Probably a much better solution  is to Shorten the Spring Season to 9 or 10 Days with a 2 Turkey Limit and 2 Solid Weekends or at least 3 Saturdays  if no Sunday Hunting is allowed. By having a 1 Bird Limit- you are just pushing some people to kill the 1st Tom and keep quiet about it and then kill the 2nd and report that Bird.
   Hopefully  down the road those States can increase to 2 Birds each Spring and just reduce the Length of the Spring Season. Does the Spring Season have to be 4 weeks or more if things are that Dire as far as Turkey numbers.
   We are going to end up losing Hunter interest and Hunters just dropping out with a 1 Bird Bag limit. Like a bitter pill in the mouth-- why even bother to go.

[BigSlam51]

Poachers are gonna poach. Kinda like the electronic game check system that too k the place of the check in stations, makes it easier for a shady person to get away with it. While shortening the season might of been the more realistic approach, you're not going to do anything for hunter interest by having a 2 week turkey season. As for why even bother going, I don't really think I need to even answer that lol.

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[MK M GOBL]

Doesn't make a difference what "rules" you make a poacher is going to poach...

I hunt out-of-state with one bird rules, doesn't stop me from going.


MK M GOBL

[Tom007]

I'll bet that the State Game Commission's realize that there will be a certain amount of birds that are harvested and not properly tagged and reported, thus they figure this in when setting bag limits......just a thought...

[TurkeyReaper69]

16? No kidding didn't think the number was that high. I'd argue there are multiple states that should bump it up to 2 birds I've been too. Not going to name em but most states IMO don't warrant a one bird limit. Really saddened me to see Ohio head to a one bird limit this season after residents advocated for it. If given the option. I would bump limits up to 2 and shorten season if that were the compromise. To hell with this socialist everyone gets a bird crap. The harvest would stay the same, the best hunters would kill 2 birds and the not so great would go empty handed. Michigan having a 45 day season for 1 turkey is ridiculous. If it takes you as a resident that long to kill one Midwestern turkey that's a bit ridiculous.

[nativeks]

We dropped from 2 birds to 1 and honestly in this part of the state a draw for tags wouldnt hurt my feelings. We kept the season at 2 months long though. I would like to see it go back to April 15th to May 15th like it was before we really liberalized the seasons.

[Chief Razor]

As a resident of Ohio I understand the frustration with the reduced bag limit. I dont like it, but understand it. Numbers of morning gobbles have dwindled on my property and the surrounding area in the past few years. I agree that reducing the bag limit is the appropriate course of action, and have done it myself for a few years prior. I would rather the length of season stay the same. I prefer to have the option of days in the field as apposed to multiple tags. Some years its hard to get time away from work or other family obligations. Shortening the season would reduce more opportunities for most people then reducing a bag limit. Lets just hope when the ship rights itself the limit goes back up. 

[Hook hanger]

I remember when my state had a 2 week season and could only kill one bird per week. There was a spring 2 week season with 1pm closure and a fall 2 week season. I really scratch my head at states that have seasons that are so long. Some of the hunters that don't  fill thier tags in the states with long seasons make me laugh at some of thier tactics.

[Number17]

A shorter season sounds like a horrible scenario to me. I still know guys that don't even get serious about killing until the 3rd week of Pa season. Mostly old timers set in their ways.
Shorten the season and you'll see pressure on birds skyrocket and hunter satisfaction will plummet.

Outlaws don't follow the law, so why do you think more rules will make it any better?

[GobbleNut]

Although it appears to me there are certainly states that need to change their harvest regulations in terms of season dates and bag limits, I would personally never advocate for a very short season with unlimited tags available.  All that does is concentrate large numbers of hunters in a very short time frame. I think there are better solutions.   

I am also an advocate of a two-bird bag limit in most states over the one-bird limit.  There are lots of ways states can implement a two-bird regulation that has negligible impact on the turkey population and harvest numbers assuming that is the concern, and at the same time, reasonably increases hunting opportunity. However, there is a balance between hunting quantity versus quality.   Personally, I think some states have gone too far in the other direction in terms of the "quantity" element. 

We are quite obviously seeing the results of some states having excessively long (and ill-timed) seasons, as well as unrealistically high bag limits.  There is a critical balance out there in terms of hunting opportunity and resource protection.  I believe some states are just beginning to understand that too much of the "quantity" factor is not a good idea.  Conversely, there appear to be some states that manage the resource too conservatively (in my opinion) and limit (reasonable) turkey hunting opportunity when allowing that opportunity would not impact the resource, at least under the current conditions.   

[Chief Razor]

I think getting bag limits increased after a reduction would be more likely then lengthening a season after dates are cut. I cant recall the specific podcast but a biologist was talking about the decline. He stated that in all reality at a point in the season when hens have been successfully bred, you could take out every mature tom from the area and the population would not be impacted. If that is the case it seems to me you could have a season A tag good for first 2/3 weeks of the season, and a B tag good only for the last 2/1 weeks of the season.

Either way I would be apposed to days lost in the field, even if my tag had already been punched.

[GobbleNut]

I cant recall the specific podcast but a biologist was talking about the decline. He stated that in all reality at a point in the season when hens have been successfully bred, you could take out every mature tom from the area and the population would not be impacted.

This was the original premise behind the establishment of spring gobbler seasons to begin with.  Unfortunately, that premise was based on the assumption that there would be reliable, long-term reproductive success in any wild turkey population.  In other words, even in the extreme event that every mature gobbler in a population was harvested (pretty unlikely event), there would be gobblers in that population in subsequent years due to population recruitment provided in the form of successful reproduction by already-fertilized hens.

That original premise was well-founded, but it did not take into account what would happen without that reliable reproduction taking place on a somewhat regular basis.  The dilemma we face now in some places is that we are experiencing long-term reproductive failure,...or at least not enough reproductive success to keep up with the number of gobblers being removed through hunting and other mortality factors.  Until we solve that issue, that original premise that gobbler numbers didn't matter if the hens were bred, although valid in theory, is not necessarily valid in reality. 

[guesswho]

We are going to end up losing Hunter interest and Hunters.

The sooner, the better!

[the Ward]

I have had a self imposed bag limit of 1 bird for the last few years anyways, as my local population has gone down. I still bought a second tag to be able to go participate with my son when he hunted. As to shortening the season, that's a no go from me. Some of us work a lot of hours and have crazy work schedules that limit our days afield, so we may only get to hunt a few days out of a 3-4 week season.
Plus shorter season crowds the woods and increases pressure. I pretty much quit hunting deer in my state because the firearm season is only a week, and muzzle loader is like 3 days, but archery is an uninterrupted 4 months or so. Ridiculous in my opinion. 

[Zobo]

We are going to end up losing Hunter interest and Hunters.

The sooner, the better!

It's an added benefit to the regulation!