Predators and quiet birds?

[Red Huck]

Op asked for thoughts. Here's mine.
These type discussions always boil down to folks who don't believe any kind of pressure affect turkeys and those that do.

Turkeys are conditioned to response just like most all animals. You kick the crap outta the family dog when you get home from work everyday and pretty soon the family dog stops meeting you at the front yard when you get home. We had all sorts of animals when I was a kid. The goats would bully the turkeys off scratch feed so I'd sling a rock or two at the billy to run him off. After a while I could simply swing my arm in motion (without a rock) and old billy would haul butt to the far end of the pasture to hide in the woods. May be a stretch for some but a billy goat has a brain about 10-15 times bigger than a turkey.

I kill a yote or two every spring coming to my calls. No doubt in my mind what they intend to do with the turkey they expect to find. Hard for me to believe they would respond if they haven't already had a taste somewhere beforehand. When I see bobcat tracks on a tract of land more often than not the turkey hunting will be dead as a hammer. May not be what other's experience but that's what I've noticed over the years here in upstate SC.

And hunting pressure, well, where I hunt on public land (National forest) I'd say turkeys see far more hunters in the month of April than they do other predators. You can judge how I feel about hunting pressure having a silencing effect on some turkeys. And before some knucklehead begins to tell me it's just my not being able to call etc., I've killed a limit of 5 here in said public land (and a little private land in the past) each of the last 20 years.
[/quote
]I to hunt the SNF in the upstate. The last few years I've noticed, less sign of birds in areas where I found birds in the past and they are very quite. Expanded  my hunt area last year. May of heard one turkey gobble. There has always been a lot of hunting pressure in these areas since I started hunting turkey. Why would they go almost completely silent now? My thought is there's less birds and more coyotes.

[Ozarks Hillbilly]

We need more trappers but it's a large money investment to get started and a larger time investment to do it. Hides aren't worth anything in my area other than Bobcat and Otter. In Missouri last year they made it legal to shoot Coyotes during Spring Turkey season with legal Turkey hunting methods and a unfilled tag in your pocket. If its legal where you hunt I would suggest you shoot every Coyote that comes to investigate your call.

[Red Huck]

We have a year round season on Hogs and Coyotes, even night hunting. But not on public land . You have to use what's legal for the game in season on public land, turkey season its a shotgun.

[owlhoot]

We need more trappers but it's a large money investment to get started and a larger time investment to do it. Hides aren't worth anything in my area other than Bobcat and Otter. In Missouri last year they made it legal to shoot Coyotes during Spring Turkey season with legal Turkey hunting methods and a unfilled tag in your pocket. If its legal where you hunt I would suggest you shoot every Coyote that comes to investigate your call.

It has always been a lot of fun blasting the coyotes 

[High plains drifter]

 I know the frustration with these cards, I've called in many real early in the morning and I haven't shot any of them although we have come very close. I just don't believe in in shooting Kyle because I like dogs, and it's too much like shooting a dog to me in it, so I don't do it, and I wouldn't shoot a fox, either. I'm talking about coyote parently this thing doesn't I'm talking into this thing

[High plains drifter]

I shoot every coyote in range with whatever weapon I have. Vocal birds are more closely related to population density and competition than to predator population in my opinion. I do believe it has some effect though. Birds with hens just don't need to gobble.

.  I will not shoot a coyote, but I will shoot a big foot, or a grizzly, to protect myself.

[Marc]

I will not shoot a coyote, but I will shoot a big foot, or a grizzly, to protect myself.

If you shoot a sasquatch, you'd better have a shovel...  I hear the fines are ridiculous. 

[Tom Foolery]

I kill every single coyote I get a crack at. 

[Team Double D]

Shot this one in the middle of a clear cut. Birds gobbling the whole time. Actually I shot four times and the birds gobbled after every shot. I think they were cheering me on.

[Player]

I think if you care about turkeys you should be killing every predator that comes to your call.  They're coming for a reason - to eat a turkey. Or should I say another turkey. They've probably done ate a few, possibly quite a few.