How many (what percentage) of toms will you take off a property???

[Marc]

I am hunting a ranch (450 acres) that typically has 3-4 toms on it (never seen a jake in the last 3 years).  Been very dry the last 2 years, and I until recently I have not had success on this ranch.

This year, I believe there are 4 toms on the property this year...  I killed one, and have a second one well-patterned.  I am hesitant to kill another bird (taking 50% of the toms) as I do not want to reduce my own resource, and also afraid of moving birds off the property and preventing breeding there.

What say the brain trust in how many birds you will take off a given property (I am the only one supposed to be hunting there).

[learn2hide]

all depends on your hatches.  Taking gobblers shouldn't ruin your hunting like taking mature bucks doesnt harm deer but that's also assuming they are making more.  if there are 4 toms and good number of hens around, then you should be making birds...but if you have crappy hatch weather, too many predators like raccoons opossum skunks and coyotes bobcats then you might not be really recruiting them.  In MO where we have plenty of turkeys a bunch of areas I know and hunt had the population drop to near zero in 2010 and 2011. This was due to predation and 3 years of terrible hatch weather, April snow and Ice and super wet springs from 2007 through 2010.   We had gobblers around during that time but no production at least not much.  Used to have 75 turkeys on this property regularly (too many) and then it crashed.  It took 3 years to get back to where there were any birds around.  We have enough that we've taken 2 gobblers off that farm each of the last few years and seem to be growing again.  Trap raccoons, and bobcats, shoot coyotes, and most importantly do all you can for your habitat to allow good nesting. This includes not mowing any grassy or weedy areas until after July 15....good luck

[fallhnt]

I hunt public that is said to have about 200 birds. So 30 birds per 1000acres of good habit. Every spring 50 to 60 gobblers get killed on this ground. I also have a buddy that always says," For every 2 birds you hear gobble,one doesn't." But I assume you are counting and not just listening. Plus factor in that the birds will come and go. Hope this is helping.

[TauntoHawk]

it really depends on the overall population in the area, hen population, and how desirable the place is to attract new birds.

I can think of a few places that I hunt that we don't worry about it at all because its desirable enough other toms move in after a dominant bird dies. A specific place (150 acres) with lots of nesting, good fields, great roost trees tons of hens and protective no hunting land near by (golf course). We shot 5-6 Toms off that property last year there was never more than 2 or 3 on a specific day but each time we killed one another bird from the area would take his place in just a few days. This year there are several nice birds again using the farm.

I can also think of other places that I know would not be the same and we try and limit the amount of birds we take.

[snapper1982]

It wont hurt you at all to kill a second bird.

[870FaceLift]

I agree with Taunto. 

What do the neighboring properties hold?  You may want to hesitate if you own the only timbered property within miles.

Harvesting mature males that typically dominate an area will bring in subordinates from other areas to take over.  Bucks often do the same thing.  You are safe harvesting toms so long as you see hens and have a desirable breeding/hatching habitat. 

[g8rvet]

I hunt a 350 acre piece that has cattle fields on both sides of a mature large creek bottom. Mix of mature pine and some younger growth.  I have harvested 1-3 birds from it for the last 10 plus years.  Last year was the first year I did not kill a bird, but they logged a large section and were just finishing as turkey season started.  They logged right down to the roost area and probably ran them off.  I have already killed one there this year. 

[wvboy]

I don't believe that it would hurt you to kill all the mature toms you can kill in a year on a property.. 2 years past hatch has more to do with population than anything.. letting a Tom get a year older will only make them harder to kill in my opinion.. plus there is no guarantee a predator or something else will keep him from seeing another spring..

As far as breeding hens.. if you kill all the toms on a place before all the hens are bred (which is probably not going to happen, as most states set their seasons after peak breeding is done).. the hens will go find another one to breed them I promise you that and they will come back and nest on their home turf..  if they can't find a tom they will breed with a Jake..

The only male birds I don't kill are Jakes .. just because I love to hear a loudmouth 2 year old.. so the more jakes I give a pass the more chance of that happening the following year..

[Fieldturkey]

one property we hunt is about 300 acres. The first year we had it we had 5 gobblers and killed all 5. The next year we killed 3 and 1 got away. This year we have 5 more. You should be fine

[TauntoHawk]

I'd never advise anyone to kill all the jakes they can but hammer away on the Toms if the local Population is doing well.

One thing you will notice is after several years of shooting them up they do tend to fill and and replace through maturing of jakes but you might not see tons of big long spurred birds as you aren't letting them age before killing but who cares.

[catman529]

I'd be leery of killing more than one or two if I had only seen 4 toms on 450 acre. I can hunt several hundred acres here that had well over a dozen toms seen, just a rough guesstimate. And a group of 12 jakes. The hatch was also very good last year so things are looking fine. We did kill a good handful of gobblers last year as well, but I don't think it hurt the population at all.


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[Farmboy27]

Kill all the gobblers you want. If the gobblers are there then there is obviously hens there. And when gobblers and hens get together it makes baby turkeys!  These babies will take the place of the toms your killing and then some. And if there are longbeards there then there are jakes there somewhere. As soon as a male turkey breeds a hen he is not doing anything for the population for another year.

[Fieldturkey]

I asked a biologist the same question and he said kill all the toms you want just not jakes

[Greg Massey]

Take what long beards you want to eat and leave the rest including the Jakes

[Captain Hooks]

If I only  have 4 toms I'm only shooting 1.    Save them fir next year, especially if your not seeing any jakes.  The only time I'm shooting more than one bird is if there 5+ toms with a good jake population.  The last thing you want is to mess up next season.