HOW DO THE NUMBERS LOOK

[Tnandy]

Wondering what my hunting brothers seen this past season as far as how the turkey population is doing. I have been greatly blessed to have a few spots that I pay nothing to hunt on. Some are productive as they have always been, whereas others are declining badly. What have ya'll seen??  BTW, I am in middle TN

[mikejd]

From My camp in NY I have a view of a very large field that I have watched birds daily for 25 yrs. I have been able to
Kill about 50% of my birds off this field in that same time but even when I do not hunt it I can watch them almost daily.
I have not seen a bird in or around this field for atleast 2 seasons now. I just got back from a 10 day hunt and between My dad, brother ans myself we where only able to locate 2 birds. I put almost 1500 miles on my truck driving around in the afternoons looking for birds. Very few sightings at all. Not looking 2 good. I did in fact call in 2 racoons and 1 coyote. Neither one presented a shot.

[sswv]

from my personal observation in the counties I hunt and travel in southern WV the overall numbers are down but, I actually looked at more gobblers this spring than the past couple. seeing gobblers was easier than hearing gobblers if that makes any sense. seeing hens was very slim and seeing more than a few together early was hard to do. I've been pretty hard on the ground predators in my area and encourage everyone to join in, a little at a time helps big in the end.

[Tnandy]

Wow, sounds bad for the area that mikejd mentioned. I would have to believe that loss of habitat, varmints left uncontrolled, and wondering now about these sprayed fields, human waste on fields, etc, is hurting the population so bad. Sounds like there needs to be a great effort put forth into getting transmitters on captured birds and see if they can be examined as to what is killing them out so rapidly. Thx for the input fellas

[guesswho]

I don't think there is a turkey left in Alabama and only a couple in Georgia, and both of them are hens.

[Tnandy]

I would like to add this thought, all the revenue that goes into licenses, the hunting industry, etc... We may need to encourage our local state wildlife agencies and lean on them to do more (if possible) to investigate this issue more. Where i hunt in TN, some of our public land is more suited for doves, rabbits, and some other wild game. But i am not aware of a National Dove Convention, a National Rabbit Convention, etc.. I mean absolutely no offence to these whatsoever, and there may be some large Convention style association. Just trying to prove a point. If turkeys arent helped and their future aided in some way, it hurts all the way around. I feel like more needs to be done to help them than maybe investing in some other areas, not saying that those should be ignored. Hope this make sense.

[Tnandy]

LOL, bad to hear that guesswho, lol

[mikejd]

Here is an observation of mine. I hunt turkeys in mostly farm country and deer hunt Big woods. The places I hunt deer in Big woods ( no far country at all) Have growing populations of turkeys even places that never had turkeys. The farm country that myself and others hunt have declining populations. Just like us humans have an epidemic of lower testosterone in men mostly due to pesticides in our food how can this not be affecting turkey that eat the bugs that are being sprayed. i am hopeful that scientists have thought of this and are including it in their studies.

[zelmo1]

Total numbers are down here. Jake numbers are up, but way fewer hens. Too many people are shooting jakes. Just my  . I think one Jake is enough per season, but it's a legal bird. Z

[Tail Feathers]

Numbers seem about the same, maybe down a hair.  But I saw and heard a few jakes so gobbling next year should be pretty good.  Plenty of 3-4 year olds should be out there too, we didn't harvest but three on the 5K acres this spring.

[Tom007]

Down, down, down. Scary down. There are birds in pockets in certain areas, but overall the numbers are down.

[lunghit]

This site is more depressing than the news sometimes.

[Dtrkyman]

Bird numbers were up and down depending on where I was, hunter numbers are way up and ignorant hunter numbers are off the charts!

[eggshell]

Well we had two turkeys left, both Hens. However, one moved to Alabama, and we now have one. "Guess Who" did you count ours as a resident or an illegal immigrant? So you either have two or three hens now. So no one should come to either Ohio or Alabama to hunt, ever. That's all I'm saying on an internet forum. To me this is another way to spot burn an area. Soon as you say you have good numbers the hoards decend.

[Old Timer]

Down, down, down. Scary down. There are birds in pockets in certain areas, but overall the numbers are down.

This is what i have been experiencing. Hunted about 15 different areas here and came up empty. I hunted 25 days this season and worked 1 gobbler. Some other areas of the state I did see pockets of birds but no access. I lost a couple spots to solar panel farms that are popping up like crazy. Even though I did not fill a tag I am very thankful I have my health to pursue Meleagris gallopavo.