HOW DO THE NUMBERS LOOK

[Clif Owen]

Not good here either. I shot one the first morning. After that, I heard one the next 4 mornings, 3 of which I just listened before work. Never heard him after that. I heard another 2 mornings but no idea where he went. I spent several more mornings listening and/or hunting but no other birds heard. I did see a couple of hens and 2 gobblers on some private land near home. Hopefully, those will travel to better locations.

[slave601]

Looking up in my area. We are finally rebounding after hurricane katrina

[ruination]

Hard to tell.  Locally, on my daily commute and such, feels like it's hurting.  But that's just looking at fields as I drive by.

Plenty of turkeys around where I hunt though, tough to tell numbers.

Maryland

[turkeywhisperer935]

I hunt in West tennessee and honestly for me the season was done after 3 weeks. Heard less gobbling and for the most part saw fewer birds than in the past. I have my own thoughts on this however. I think weather and a combination of when the season opened had some to do with it. I believe because of the nice weather we had earlier before season they had already been a lot of activity before season opened. Some smart folk won't agree but I've saw it before just not as severe. Know for a fact a friend seen a gobbler breed 5 hens two weeks before season opened. I understand why they wanted to do this but I woulda done it differently. Open one week later and closed a week earlier than what we did. Just my thoughts. I quit after the third week from lack of activity and weather reasons.

[deathfoot]

Where I hunt in southwest VA. Down. Kill numbers were down and where I used to see flocks of 30 or so it's down to about 12 or so. The county I hunt in is down. The overall turkey harvest for the state was a record tho. But hunter numbers have increased in my opinion. (a total guess as the state issues turkey tags with every big game licensee sold so who knows there).

I traveled many states. Missouri was a waste of time. As was where I hunted in Montana. Time I got to Montana, the land owner told me 40 turkeys had been killed before my arrival. Which is crazy. He claimed to have a flock of 300 plus. Wyoming Black Hills. I heard a bunch. Then the weekend came, and it was trucks and 4 wheelers all around. Ran into a local who claimed, "I've been hunting here 20 years and never seen this many people".

So it appears, turkey hunter numbers are up. Turkey populations don't seem to be. I ran into some good turkeys in other states tho. Where I hunted in Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota, turkeys are doing well there.

I'm hoping it gets better. But time will tell.

[Paulmyr]

How about we don't tell everybody on the planet which states have good or great turkey numbers?

[Howieg]

How about we don't tell everybody on the planet which states have good or great turkey numbers?

Agreed !! We are our own worst enemies it seems ...

[Prospector]

Worse habitat. More nest raiders. More hunters. Bad weather. Some of these we can manipulate/some we cannot. Even if we manipulate the ones we possibly can it may not help- but it dang sure won't hurt...

[GobbleNut]

General observations in the places I have hunted: (almost entirely western-states public lands)
Point One:  More hunters are taking more gobblers out of the population each spring than are being replaced.  That fact alone points to declining quality of hunting,...and declining opportunity as more restrictions are implemented to conserve the remaining resource. 

Point Two:  In those places where public and private properties are interspersed together (which is common), more people are moving into those private areas and doing two things.  They are both posting their properties against hunting (or reserving the hunting for themselves or select individuals), and they are also attracting wildlife off of the surrounding public lands and holding it either on their property, or close enough to present problems for hunters hunting the surrounding public lands. 

We (me and the guys I hunt with) are consistently hunting in situations where we are trying to pull turkeys off of private properties that have intentionally made improvements on their land to attract and hold turkeys (and other wildlife) on their properties and keep them there.  In many of those cases, turkeys that just a decade or two ago would consistently be on public lands near these private lands are no longer spending any time on the public lands. 

[CntrlPAlongbeard]

Last year was the worst year we've had in 40 years according to my father. This year felt back to normal almost.
Both of the birds we killed were 2 year olds however.
And hunting pressure was still insanely high locally.

I was very worried last year.
Our fall turkey season is actually popular around where I hunt and people do harvest hens (including myself in the past). I would never consider taking a hen now and actually I voluntarily have been skipping the fall season in general because I prefer the spring season.


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[Paulmyr]

General observations in the places I have hunted: (almost entirely western-states public lands)
Point One:  More hunters are taking more gobblers out of the population each spring than are being replaced.  That fact alone points to declining quality of hunting,...and declining opportunity as more restrictions are implemented to conserve the remaining resource. 

Point Two:  In those places where public and private properties are interspersed together (which is common), more people are moving into those private areas and doing two things.  They are both posting their properties against hunting (or reserving the hunting for themselves or select individuals), and they are also attracting wildlife off of the surrounding public lands and holding it either on their property, or close enough to present problems for hunters hunting the surrounding public lands. 

We (me and the guys I hunt with) are consistently hunting in situations where we are trying to pull turkeys off of private properties that have intentionally made improvements on their land to attract and hold turkeys (and other wildlife) on their properties and keep them there.  In many of those cases, turkeys that just a decade or two ago would consistently be on public lands near these private lands are no longer spending any time on the public lands.

I think also with the methods of many of the new breed of turkey hunters and the quest for the slam forces turkeys to private as well. Where in 15/20 years ago or more the methods used by hunters didn't disturb the turkeys near as much. They weren't constantly being harassed or atleast didn't know they were being hunted until it was to late. All this running gunning, turkey reaping, bushwhacking gets them spooked from the get go.

Used be 3/4/5 guys could hunt an area and the turkeys would be none the wiser. Now every weekend has atleast one guy, most likely more,  running to every turkey they hear gobbling in the woods and putting heavy pressure on them in the hopes of getting a shot. There's no attempt to learn the habits of the turkeys in the area they are hunting. There's no waiting til the time is right. They force every encounter because it has do get done now and it usually ends up with spooky turkeys that would rather hang on private where the aren't harassed near as much.

I bet many of the turkeys you described hunting have no problems hanging out in public during the off season.

[Dtrkyman]

My belief is that the mapping technology is having the biggest effect on hunters accessing lands, not too long ago you couldn't know and pick spots from your couch!

I have killed a lot of birds from waypoints I created from home at a place I have never set foot!

Couple hours on mapping and you can find some great places, problem is now so has everyone else!

[deerhunt1988]

Up some places, down in others. Public land pressure as bad as i've seen the past 20 years. Keep thinking we will hit a tipping point, but still haven't.

[Greg Massey]

  

[sasquatch1]

Been roughly the same for me over the 18 years I've been chasing them. Sometimes I hear/see more and others not. Up and down basically

The only main thing I've seen change is 10x the amount of hunters but I've adapted well and still find success. Although it does get annoying at times

Sometimes I see some of these responses and it just makes me scratch my head. Some people either just struggle no matter what unless they at Sanderson farms or won't adapt and find better places, continuing to hunt the same dry holes no matter what


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