What do you think ...

[Clif Owen]

I think it should be a hunter's choice.
A few years back, a friend of mine and I let several jakes walk one season..best guess was 9 or 10 between a couple of areas. We really expected to have some fun the next spring. BUT..one several trips to listen; we did not hear the first bird and didn't see but a couple of tracks in the clearcut they were near. What happened?? I didn't hear of any outbreaks of disease but did hear rumors of the WLF guys trapping birds to restock somewhere else...Who knows?

[Hwd silvestris]

Jakes should be for youth only in my opinion.  My 10 yr old last year let a spitting/drumming/gobbling super Jake walk.  By his choice not mine.  I told him he should to shoot him.  He thought about for a bit and decided not to.   We did have some fun with him tho. He has killed 1 Jake in his early career when he was 6 yr old.  At that time he had killed 9 longbeards. Although some of these bull jakes are harder to call in than a mature experienced gobbler.  They can be finicky lil boogers.
A grown man killing a Jake is kinda like a grown man shooting a spike deer.  I mean come on! 
I feel like most poachers around my parts don't shoot jakes.  They just kill entirely way too many longbeards.  Some just deer hunt them over corn. 
These lowlifes absolutely discuss me!


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[briton]

I say limit the jakes to youth season. Give the birds a chance to reach maturity and breed more.

[King Cobra]

I agree with the six-inch rule but feel there could be exceptions for first time hunters, youth, and people with special needs. We need to give turkeys every opportunity to survive and strive.

[joey46]

Going to attempt to post 3 pictures (always an adventure on this forum).  Look at them quick.  Imagine you are on day three of a three day hunt.  You may not get out again.  You like to eat turkey.  The elitist have succeeded in having a no jakes 6" rule in your area.  You just heard that quick cluck that usually means they know somethings not right.  The far birds head has popped up.  Shoot - Don't shoot.  Again do it quick you'll only have one chance.  No safety concerns so don't throw that in.  Quick quick quick. 
There is one very good longbeard in this group and a few that may or may not qualify for the 6" rule (spit) but "OOPS!" you picked the wrong one and the flopper is a 5".  Now what??  Turn yourself in and throw yourself on the mercy of the court or just sneak him out and have him for supper?  You all know what would probably happen.  I just hope the 5" doesn't get left for buzzard bait.  What a waste.

[joey46]

Now do it again - QUICK - he just caught you're movement.  This picture from last week.  We'll be hunting this area next Tuesday.  I'm blessed to be Florida done but my hunting buddy can take one more.  I'll carry stuff and call.  I'm 99% sure this is a jake but when you blow the picture up it has more than a typical jake beard.  Again imagine you're at the end of a trip and may not get out again this season. 
On this forum I can't post an enhanced blow up but I'm betting this is at least a 4".  Camera still there.  Should get him again.  Knowing my buddy he will give him a pass so no one pee their pants. 

[joey46]

Last one.
Deer can't recall if the 6" rule is in effect.  Thinking it over.  LOL.

[guesswho]

Easy answer for me with or without a 6" rule.    Pass, pass and pass.   Pulling the trigger is not a snap decision for me.   It's either my training, or those two little words a lot of people lose while hunting, common sense.   In all the years I've been doing this I have never felt pressured into making a quick shooting decision.   And to justify such a decision with I like to eat turkey, is just lame.  And if I found myself in these snap decision positions on a regular basis I'd start to think that something I'm doing or not doing might be the cause.

[joey46]

You seemed to have missed the whole point.   

[guesswho]

I am kind of slow . 

I get the whole wasted bird etc.   And agree it's a valid concern.   And I think you have missed my original point.   The random spur length comment was meant as a fail safe for someone who killed a 5 1/2" beard.   My point was to try to make second spring gobblers legal, and protect first spring gobblers.   Never meant it as a checklist.   

[TrackeySauresRex]

  Voted No.

However, I do like the yes vote.

I don't shoot Jake's. I like leaving the little ones for the little ones. I did shoot a Jake a few years back. STUFF happenS. I had a bird gobbling like mad and he ran in. My emotions got the best of me and let him have it. It was the wrong bird.

We've all seen a mature full fan Tom with a shortie out there.

What will "A" 70 yard tss hero shooter do? Many times He's not going to have a good assessment.
^JMHO

[MISSISSIPPI Double beard]

At 70 yards it would be kinda hard to see a 4 inch beard without bino's.

[bwhana]

Having been a part of the early days of the QDMA and implementing it, any restrictions must be EASY to determine in the field under most circumstances by even inexperienced hunters (low light, thick vegetation).  Limiting harvest to an 6 or 8 pt or better or a 15" wide rack (easier, but not perfect, since the vast majority of deer have a 14-15" wide ear spread).  Applying these restrictions in deer seen easy to teach and use, but finding something similar in turkeys is not easy, nor practical.

So far in this and other threads, no one has been able to present any options that can be easily implemented in the field by inexperienced hunters (get out of your experienced head and look at this through a brand new hunter's eyes) and are not viable for that reason.  In turkey hunting situation, how are you going to realistically teach hunters how to judge a +6" beard - what are the indicators on a live bird that you can use to determine that quickly in the field - head and neck length vs the beard, extended versus question mark mode?  A full fan sounds like the perfect solution at first, but if the bird is not strutting, 95% won't be able to tell and they are just not capable of glassing or seeing the tail feather notch when tucked.  Factor in higher vegetation and the beard and fan are out the window too.  Beard length is not always accurate either, with some mature gobblers missing a beard completely or very short.  A jake head "look" versus a gobbler head is a fairly accurate indicator, but the occasional super jake will mess up that one too.  I have seen them put on a show that matched any gobbler and the only difference between them was the tail feathers. Spurs are just too small to use as a field judging guide and I have seen toms without any spurs.

Most here have said they support youth, first time hunters, etc., be able to take jakes.  The reality in QDMA was that hunters want the same with small bucks, but what really happens is most hunters abuse it and you end up with even more small bucks taken on clubs than before they went to QDMA.  Most states have a youth turkey season, and they should be able to take any male bird during those seasons only, but not during the entire season, if you want to restrict jake harvests.  There is zero biological evidence to date that indicates limiting jake harvests contributes to increasing overall population except in extreme situations, it just adds some 2 year olds for the next season, and many of them wont even make it to that time. This is about as good as wearing grandmas t-shirt covid mask - zero science, all show.  Add in the fact that a hen only needs to be bred a single time each spring and she is good for fertilizing her eggs for 30-50 days, and that most of our seasons are set to start after breeding has been going on for at least a few weeks, taking out jakes, or gobblers, makes no difference on the population ongoing - that is a another issue.

Sadly, in places like Florida Osceola lands or Goulds in the SW, the only real answer is to go to a full lottery system with residents getting the most tags and severely cut the nonresident opportunities and reduce all harvests. Scream all you want people, but the time for this is way overdue.  Anything less is just window dressing until the resource is gone completely, and you can talk about the good old days when you could hunt Osceolas openly and then had to put in for tags instead of talking about the day they went extinct.

[cracker4112]

Florida hunter here, and I vote no, for sure.  Not only is it impractical, we don't need any more rules down here, they are hard enough to follow as it is.

I'm hunting an old bird right now that has giant hooks and virtually no beard.  I called him into range with two jakes and once I was ready to shoot they grouped up, got nervous not seeing a hen, and quit strutting.  I couldn't tell them apart with their movements and the grass was too high to see his spurs, so they all got to live another day. I don't see why there should be a law to prevent him from being legal.

But I also don't mind a new hunter or a kid taking a jake for their first, I don't think it hurts a thing.  IMO most guys aren't after jakes so a mistake or new/young hunters should not be penalized.

Oh and the FWC has no idea how many turkeys are taken on public land each year, and less of an idea what's happening on private.  The new tag system is long overdue.

[Marc]

If a scumbag would leave a bird rot he's likely up to no good anyway!

Hunting with a kid on a WMA with a check station...  Kid shoots the closest bird instead of the long-beard...  I would guess the majority of hunters are not checking that bird out, knowing there will be a fine.