Has turkey hunnting become less popular

[Crghss]

silly concept known as "reaping"?

Don't think I've heard of this.

[Southerngobbler]

silly concept known as "reaping"?

Don't think I've heard of this.

Some fool hiding behind a fanned out turkey fan and advancing toward a field gobbler. They are surprisingly vulnerable to this tactic and it takes all the normal skill set out of the equation. sometimes they come running in. Hopefully states will outlaw this process as its too effective and doesn't encompass any of the traditional methods of hunting a spring time gobbler.

[Old Timer]

I have calls and decoys that friends have given me because they dropped the sport. I think some have the mindset that their gonna go in the woods and shoot a turkey quickly. Fun at first then they realize that they really have to work for a bird. Also in cny the population of birds has dropped the last few years. Seems like fewer hunters in my area. That said we have also lost a lot of farms.

[Sir-diealot]

I have calls and decoys that friends have given me because they dropped the sport. I think some have the mindset that their gonna go in the woods and shoot a turkey quickly. Fun at first then they realize that they really have to work for a bird. Also in cny the population of birds has dropped the last few years. Seems like fewer hunters in my area. That said we have also lost a lot of farms.

You're not to far from me, do you have the Mennonites coming in and raping the land the way I see here? They wipe out every tree and hedgerow in site, plant right up to the edge of the road making it hard to navigate many roads safely due to lack of visibility on curves and corners, thus causing whiteouts and drifting across the roads. They will not let you hunt their land at all or even cross over to get a downed animal but have absolutely no problem crossing onto your land trespassing after they have made it impossible for game to live on their wasteland and shoot up all your animals and then cop you an attitude when they get caught. Then they get crop management permits out the wazoo and again start shooting deer throughout the Summer making the deer go nocturnal and none existent of very very hard to kill because the have become so weary because of the practices of the Mennonite farmers. I know a guy (Mennonite no less, the one that I drive for) that they sometimes call to have him come over to get the deer off the land and he said 9 times out of 10 it is not even deer that are doing the damage, it is raccoon doing the damage.

Oh and then they will not frequent the businesses of the English, (Just as little that is needed so that they will still be able to buy from them if they can't get from somebody of the own kind) (That is what they call us) they will open shops and buy from no one but their own kind putting the normal Joe English in hot water and what makes it worse is the tourists come in here and think oh it's going to be so cool to go to the Mennonite shop instead of the Joe the Englishman and that makes it even harder for the English to survive.

Not all are like this, but a very large amount of them are. One of the reasons I get along with the guy I work for is he is against that attitude. He and I will sit there and drive by a pace and he will be just as upset as I am when we see a bunch of Mennonites wiping out a stand of trees. He also has respect in the way he takes an animal and is passing those attitudes onto his children.

Oh I almost forgot about the way they rip the roads apart with those steel tires. if a new road gets laid they do not even have the  courtesy to let the firm up a bit, they just go drive down the road right after the road crew has left making large grooves in the road and making it bumpy to ride on, a brand new road bumpy!

[eggshell]

I hear ya Sir diealot, we have a huge mennonite community here. They moved here from Pennsylvania about 25 years ago. We have a lot that are very social and active in the community, they do a lot of local business. For the most part they are an asset. I don't see them destroying the habitat like your area. I think it matters what leadership group they are aligned with. On the hunting side ......yeah if you let one in he shows up with all the friends and family, they will take over an area and harvest everything they can.

[BigSlam51]

Don't get me started on the amish lol. I'm right beside Holmes county. I caught them on my property 5 years ago, they poached a doe. I made him tag it, and I took it. Had to go to work or i would of called the game warden.

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[Sir-diealot]

I hear ya Sir diealot, we have a huge mennonite community here. They moved here from Pennsylvania about 25 years ago. We have a lot that are very social and active in the community, they do a lot of local business. For the most part they are an asset. I don't see them destroying the habitat like your area. I think it matters what leadership group they are aligned with. On the hunting side ......yeah if you let one in he shows up with all the friends and family, they will take over an area and harvest everything they can.

Don't get me started on the amish lol. I'm right beside Holmes county. I caught them on my property 5 years ago, they poached a doe. I made him tag it, and I took it. Had to go to work or i would of called the game warden.

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I have a Friend that married a Mennonite woman, she was shunned for marrying an Englishman. He tells me that in Lancaster County PA it is hard to find a tree, or at least a large woods. I was at Hershey Park PA which I THINK is in Lancaster County but I remember trees. I do think some of it has to do with leadership, but I think in many there is a superiority complex in them that makes them think they above the English, again, not all. I have a friend who's house was very badly flooded and they came and helped them rebuild, they do help in the community at times.

@Bigslam51 I do not know if you know, some don't but Mennonite and Amish are not the same.

[sasquatch1]

It's like compounding interest rates!

There's way less kids into hunting than there use to be as a %, however with a growing population it don't take the same % to equal the hunter numbers.

Population growing, taking up more land for development and farming to supply food, eliminating land mass while simultaneously adding hunters to that smaller parcel of land mass.


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[trad bow]

I am surrounded by public land here in Georgia where I live. I don't see the numbers of hunters decreasing but the numbers of birds have dropped precipitously. That in turn makes more people running toward any gobbler they hear causing conflicts with other hunters. Even have had people bust up a hunt claiming they heard bird first. How in the heck can anyone think they heard a bird before someone else.

[cutt down]

In my area of Tennessee numbers are still average. Back around 7 years ago the number of turkeys were a lot more and guys were taking up turkey hunting because , they were thinking it's easy to kill a turkey. After numbers leveled off and it became not so easy, a lot of the 3 time a season hunters stop turkey hunting, which i have no problem with these group of hunters not hunting anymore. I had lot's rather be in the woods with a season turkey hunter, if nothing else for safety reasons.. You also can't tell numbers are down if you go to the NWTF convention in Nashville it's packed with people all day from all ages ....

I don't know what part of TN you are in but in West TN the number of turkeys is way down & that in turn makes the number of turkey hunters less it seems. I don't see as many in the spring as I have in the past. I personally think West TN should have a reduced limit instead of the 4 bird limit like middle & east TN. I'm no biologist but I do have a friend that is/was with the state & he feels the same way about West TN as I do. Too much pressure in the past with too liberal limits & bad hatches make it a lot tougher on the population. The honor system of tagging is a joke too! But I do believe that the number of hunters coorelates with the amount and/or ease of taking birds. As it gets more difficult the number of hunters drops.

[FL-Boss]

Couldn't have said it better..spot on.

It's like compounding interest rates!

There's way less kids into hunting than there use to be as a %, however with a growing population it don't take the same % to equal the hunter numbers.

Population growing, taking up more land for development and farming to supply food, eliminating land mass while simultaneously adding hunters to that smaller parcel of land mass.


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[salukigobbler]

I don't know. I'm in S.C., and it seems like there are more people "turkey hunting," but I'm getting older and grumpier and tend to complain more than I used to. There's definitely less birds, so that doesn't help with the equation. 
 

 

[turkeyfoot]

In NC I see more every single year many without a clue hunting public ground but luckily I can out walk most of them lot them guys don't venture far from truck in mtns

[RED NECK]

I dealt with a lot of "hunters" the last 13 years and honestly,Turkey hunting is one of the least popular to the "weekend" warriors in my parts,I believe it is because you need to get up extremely early,and have the skill and patience to call.

I am glad that there are less hunters,less poachers and headaches to deal with in general. I hunt only private land and don't need to worry about anything but hearing a gobble.

I have had to call the mnr on multiple occasions a decade ago on poachers shooting birds from their vehicle from the road,they caught the guy and It cost him a lot of money as he was a known poacher in area for years,that was my best "hunt".

I don't see  1/4 of the hunters in general in my area as there used to be a lot of rifle gangs for whitetail,now they are gone or stump sitters,the less "gang"hunting, the better imo...

[Kylongspur88]

It doesn't seem like kids around here want to hunt anymore and I know several guys who are aging out of the sport.