Covid Year Lock Down

[Greg Massey]

Do you feel the Covid lock down year had any effect on your State Turkey Population? In our state during the spring lock down we had people who usually didn't turkey hunt out in the woods turkey hunting. I had people who never pattern a shotgun trying to find or borrow shells, calls and other turkey related items. I saw a huge number of people park on private land / farms that usually only have these numbers of people hunting during deer season. I feel after the Spring kill during this Covid lock down in our state they used these kill numbers in deciding to roll the season back 2 weeks now in Tenn...  Did you see a big number increase in Public land Hunting during the lock down?

[deathfoot]

Interesting take. I just looked and Virginia Turkey harvest was one of the highest in 2020. It still remains around that level so it's possible covid lockdown created some new turkey hunters.

I hunted the black hills during the lockdown. I can't speak for SD because I tagged out after only being there for 2 hours. But Wyoming was overran with hunters. Every where you could put a tent. There seemed to be a tent.

So you may be on to something.

[Remington700]

I did not see a large increase in numbers on private around me. I do not hunt the big pieces that tons of people hunt anyways. The numbers speak for themselves on kills during Covid. I do not mind that TN cut back to 2 birds, they should have when they cut back to 3. I will miss hunting late March and early April  I really enjoyed youth season lined up with my kids Spring break. I hope it accomplishes what they want it to and numbers increase, time will tell.

[Greg Massey]

My point is the Covid Lock down year shouldn't have been used in the deciding factory of the numbers game / kills with States. Regarding Openers. That was an unprecedented year... as for rolling the season back 2 weeks and decreasing the bag limited 2 birds, you could have done this by decreasing your kill numbers yourself.  I usually killed in my area what i felt was reasonable, maybe 1 / 2 to help in sustaining the gobblers for years to come.. The wildlife people give you the tools and bag limited, but my suggestion is manage you hunting ground.  Not just because that gave you a number / limit... YOUR the manager of yourself and your kills .. IMO

[CALLM2U]

My point is the Covid Lock down year shouldn't have been used in the deciding factory of the numbers game / kills with States. Regarding Openers. That was an unprecedented year... as for rolling the season back 2 weeks and decreasing the bag limited 2 birds, you could have done this by decreasing your kill numbers yourself.  I usually killed in my area what i felt was reasonable, maybe 1 / 2 to help in sustaining the gobblers for years to come.. The wildlife people give you the tools and bag limited, but my suggestion is manage you hunting ground.  Not just because that gave you a number / limit... YOUR the manager of yourself and your kills .. IMO

That would require self-control.  That's not something Americans-especially the last few generations are particularly good about. 

I don't disagree with your point, I just think it's a pipe-dream. 

[Greg Massey]

My point is the Covid Lock down year shouldn't have been used in the deciding factory of the numbers game / kills with States. Regarding Openers. That was an unprecedented year... as for rolling the season back 2 weeks and decreasing the bag limited 2 birds, you could have done this by decreasing your kill numbers yourself.  I usually killed in my area what i felt was reasonable, maybe 1 / 2 to help in sustaining the gobblers for years to come.. The wildlife people give you the tools and bag limited, but my suggestion is manage you hunting ground.  Not just because that gave you a number / limit... YOUR the manager of yourself and your kills .. IMO

That would require self-control.  That's not something Americans-especially the last few generations are particularly good about. 

I don't disagree with your point, I just think it's a pipe-dream.

Agree, but more and more areas / farmland is least hunting ground this day and time ... self-control can be put in place by the group... But I agree i see your point also...

[BBR12]

My point is the Covid Lock down year shouldn't have been used in the deciding factory of the numbers game / kills with States. Regarding Openers. That was an unprecedented year... as for rolling the season back 2 weeks and decreasing the bag limited 2 birds, you could have done this by decreasing your kill numbers yourself.  I usually killed in my area what i felt was reasonable, maybe 1 / 2 to help in sustaining the gobblers for years to come.. The wildlife people give you the tools and bag limited, but my suggestion is manage you hunting ground.  Not just because that gave you a number / limit... YOUR the manager of yourself and your kills .. IMO

Gary I did the same things on the ground I hunt when there were actually turkeys there to hunt that's another story. HOWEVER very few people will do that and there is no way to know when your hunting public ground how many are there and how many have been killed. If you tell people to monitor and only kill a percentage of their birds they will say the state set the limit at 3 for a reason. I actually had a good friend who I would have thought better of than this, but last year between youth week and opening weekend they killed ALL 5 gobblers that they knew about on the farm they hunt. I was like really man, he just shrugged his shoulders and said eventually some will move back in.

To answer your original question. Yes covid year was bad with new people taking up hunting because they had time. That also means that some percentage of them continued to hunt because they enjoyed it, they didn't quit the next year so they continue to be a factor in the harvest.
The biggest thing I see is EVERYBODY is traveling now. I've been traveling and hunting for about 20 years and there have always been a few people that did. The last few years it seems everyone is doing the Super Slam and the ones who aren't are just trying to be Dave Owens or The Hunting Public, etc. There are people everywhere now days.
It used to be tough to find where to go and how to go about doing it. Now days with mapping software that shows where every 5 acre public piece is located and thousands of U tube vidoes to go watch, every 18 yr has someone telling him just go and telling him how to do it.

[aclawrence]

I know it was really crowded that year and since then. I would think most of the guys aren't really going to kill many turkeys but some of the numbers of turkey harvest reported is scary.  I think some WMA's had double and triple numbers compared to before.


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[Tom007]

Great thread Greg. In NJ, our Turkey harvests were actually down in 2021, 2022 approximately 18% from 2020. There was only a ten bird difference between 2021 and 2022. The numbers are dramatic decreases, the trend is starting to look dismal. The state did not change anything regarding the seasons and bag limits. Unfortunately, the permit dollars seem to be taking precedent here. This season will be a real tell tail sign on this trend, hopefully it does not continue its slide downward. I spend numerous hours afield each year, I have witnessed this down trend first hand......

[GobbleNut]

Around here, Covid definitely put more people in the woods (national forest), but it was difficult to tell how many were turkey hunters,...lots of campers, ATV riders, etc. running around. 

Spring gobbler hunting pressure here is increasing,...as is the impact on the turkey population,...but I believe that is more due to more and more people that never turkey hunted becoming aware of the thrill of spring hunting.  It is also a function of almost all of our other species of big game going to drawings, resulting in more and more folks looking for alternatives for their hunting. 

Turkeys are lumped in with big game here and are about the last remaining species that has OTC hunting opportunity.  We are seeing more and more hunters that never hunted turkeys try it, see how much fun it is, and become turkey hunters.  Then they tell their non-turkey-hunting buddies about it,...and so forth,...until we have ended up where we are now. 

That is, more turkey hunters filling the woods,...more gobblers being taken out of the population,...which results in more pressure on the remaining birds and with more hunters concentrating on those birds,...and so on.  It is a vicious cycle that looks like it will not change,...unless wildlife managers decide to address this situation by implementing more and more restrictions,...and that is exactly what is happening around the country, and will very likely continue.

[Teamblue]

Locally i saw an increase.  Had to literally zigzag around pup tents and decoys 2020 and since. 

The point about self regulation is a good one. Unfortunately, the majority of people i bump into don't possess that discipline.


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[Tail Feathers]

It put a lot of people in the woods in their local area, but not many travelled.  I know it put a lot of people on the local lake.  I guess it was a push at worst, more likely it helped the turkeys overall as fewer people travelled to hunt.  Where I hunt, it didn't change much at all.  The folks who lease the land either live local or had a camp, so nothing changed on my home turf.

[jhoward11]

Didn't see much in the way of change when it came to the amount of people in the woods. The change I saw was more birds on the private land I hunt in Mo. They didn't allow hunting during Covid, which of course lent itself to more birds. Only good thing to come from Covid. Only problem is..... I can't hear them gobble with their masks on. LOL

[Howieg]

We had a bumper crop of 2 year olds , this caused a lot of the new hunters to think they where " easy ".
This added much pressure ever since .

[Kylongspur88]

The WMAs got a little more traffic but total harvests didn't increase exponentially. Honestly other than schools going remote and restaurants closing most people just kind of kept living their lives here. Some places required masks and others didn't. I'd say the split between wearing masks and not was around 50/50