Pushing Season Start Dates Back...

[PNWturkey]

States might as well go to a fall gobbler only season!

IMO, in a state with a declining turkey population, it's hard to justify shooting hens in the fall...

[TauntoHawk]

States might as well go to a fall gobbler only season!

IMO, in a state with a declining turkey population, it's hard to justify shooting hens in the fall...

I'd be fine dropping killing hens nation wide

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

[grayfox]

I don't know if delaying the opening day 1-2 weeks is helping or not. But since they started delaying the season here in Alabama where I been hunting the turkey hunting has gotten a lot worse in my opinion. Most of the gobbling usually goes on the most the first week or two of season. For many years every since I started turkey hunting season always started March 15th. This year it didn't start until April 1st & you can't hunt past 1:00. I heard one turkey gobble 2-3 times & shut up on opening morning & haven't heard a gobble since. I wish they would have left opening day on March 15th like it has been for years & reduced the bag limit to maybe 1-2 birds per season. And I went last week & they had been burning some more. This ain't the first time they have burned in April which to my understanding is when they start nesting.

[arkrem870]

Where is the research that shows eggs going unfertilized?

Arkansas has been on the late season pattern for 10+ years with no improvements. . Nest predation is the elephant in the room

[Izzyjoe]

It's just a matter of time!

[Howie g]

Where is the research that shows eggs going unfertilized?

Arkansas has been on the late season pattern for 10+ years with no improvements. . Nest predation is the elephant in the room

Pushing season dates back in La has helped from what I see .
  But I agree , nest predators are a huge issue .

[TrackeySauresRex]

NJ pushed the opener later by one week. We will see how this works out in the long run. Hopefully it allows more hens to get bred.

This happened a while ago in Nj. I believe it was around 2010. Around that time we were having record harvest numbers. Loss of habitat and miss management of the flock are definitely major issues here in this state. The northern zones are suffering pretty bad. We are witnessing a major decline in this state. It's no way even close to what it was. I'm no biologist. However... I would support this decision for the future.

[redleg06]

Where is the research that shows eggs going unfertilized?

Arkansas has been on the late season pattern for 10+ years with no improvements. . Nest predation is the elephant in the room

https://aonmag.com/hunting/start-turkey-season-later-research-advisory-board/

I don't know how to make that a hyperlink so just copy and paste it into your browser. It's a long read but really interesting.

[JohnSouth22]

Again, too many people.  When the illegals start hunting them, it will be a total goat rodeo.

Why don't you do your part, and give up turkey hunting? For the good of the species?

great point. everyone loves to complain about increased pressure in their areas but then will go burn through other states

[silvestris]

I don't travel to hunt; Louisiana and accross the Big Muddy in Mississippi.  I don't have to go far to recognize the problem, and the problem is  not going anywhere.  Too many takers chasing a finite resource.

[turkey_slayer]

You take an animal that's not that hard to kill to begin with, then increase pressure, reduce habitat and deploy tactics to make them even easier to kill!   What could possibly go wrong?    I start seeing breeding in mid to late February every year.   I saw my first poults of the year this week.    I don't think moving the starting dates back are going to correct the trend we are seeing.   In my opinion they're chasing the wrong rabbit.   

This. Turkeys are the easiest big game to kill by far and the tactics used are much more successful. The increase in the amount of hunters in the last few years is astonishing. It seems like it's tripled since the social media boom

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

[redleg06]

You take an animal that's not that hard to kill to begin with, then increase pressure, reduce habitat and deploy tactics to make them even easier to kill!   What could possibly go wrong?    I start seeing breeding in mid to late February every year.   I saw my first poults of the year this week.    I don't think moving the starting dates back are going to correct the trend we are seeing.   In my opinion they're chasing the wrong rabbit.   

This. Turkeys are the easiest big game to kill by far and the tactics used are much more successful. The increase in the amount of hunters in the last few years is astonishing. It seems like it's tripled since the social media boom

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

There's no doubt... How do we go about making dove and snipe hunting cool again???

Someone get a youtube channel started about that -  TDHP has a nice ring to it...The Dove Hunting Project

[bigriverbum]

You take an animal that's not that hard to kill to begin with, then increase pressure, reduce habitat and deploy tactics to make them even easier to kill!   What could possibly go wrong?    I start seeing breeding in mid to late February every year.   I saw my first poults of the year this week.    I don't think moving the starting dates back are going to correct the trend we are seeing.   In my opinion they're chasing the wrong rabbit.   

This. Turkeys are the easiest big game to kill by far and the tactics used are much more successful. The increase in the amount of hunters in the last few years is astonishing. It seems like it's tripled since the social media boom

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

are there no deer in virginia?

[Sir-diealot]

I have been seeing them strutting since late March here in NY most say their prime breeding season starts before our May 1 opener and we are getting the tail end of the breeding season. I am not 100% sure I agree with that but normally at the end of the season it is pretty dead around here, though I did have 5 jakes come out the last day of the season last year to my calling. On a good note I saw a tom strutting and gobbling while I was setting my blind up a week ago tomorrow, it was close to 5 in the evening so I hope there will be some morning action there as well.

[turkey_slayer]

You take an animal that's not that hard to kill to begin with, then increase pressure, reduce habitat and deploy tactics to make them even easier to kill!   What could possibly go wrong?    I start seeing breeding in mid to late February every year.   I saw my first poults of the year this week.    I don't think moving the starting dates back are going to correct the trend we are seeing.   In my opinion they're chasing the wrong rabbit.   

This. Turkeys are the easiest big game to kill by far and the tactics used are much more successful. The increase in the amount of hunters in the last few years is astonishing. It seems like it's tripled since the social media boom

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

are there no deer in virginia?

Where I hunt? Very few.  Once the bear population exploded 20 years ago they've took a massive hit.  Virginia actually just completed a study on fawn survival.  Bears were responsible for 70% of the mortality.  Of the 62 fawns coyotes only got 1, bobcat 3 and bears got the rest.  I do hunt in probably the poorest habitat in the whole state tho. It's really just fit for bear. Steep, rocky and full of rhododendron

Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk