spring seasons starting later

[hotspur]

Last year Louisiana turkey season was moved back a week. I was able to hunt Texas north zone opener, and make it home for the Louisiana opening weekend, this year Texas season is moved back a week also. Any other states opening later? I guess we shall wait and see if this helps rebound turkey populations , I hope it will, I have seen evidence of sitting hens on opening day  in both locations over the years.

[BBURN]

South Carolina is opening later this season on private land in the Lowcountry area of the state.  Normally opens on Mar 15, but opening day is sliding to Mar 22 in Game Zones 3 and 4.  Game Zones 1 and 2 will still open Apr 1 along with all WMAs statewide.   

[wchadw]

kinda wish they would do this in MS.  our season starts march 15 and it was cold and rainy until around april 1 before there was much gobbling in my area

[Tail Feathers]

I'm 100 miles from the Gulf Coast and ours opens April 22.  Gobbling disappears after the first week of May and season goes to mid May.  Way too late, but it was this or close the season entirely the State biologist said.
I wish some states north of me would stay open later, hard to hunt mine (trying to get grandkids out there too) and travel after the first week of May.

[bbcoach]

Last year Louisiana turkey season was moved back a week. I was able to hunt Texas north zone opener, and make it home for the Louisiana opening weekend, this year Texas season is moved back a week also. Any other states opening later? I guess we shall wait and see if this helps rebound turkey populations , I hope it will, I have seen evidence of sitting hens on opening day in both locations over the years.

I was told several years ago, from several biologists, they set spring turkey seasons after most of the breeding has been done and hens are setting on eggs.  Their reasoning is gobblers are less likely to be killed since most breeding is over.  They utilize data from previous years kill ratio and brood numbers to make that determination.  Our youth season normally opens the first Saturday of April and our regular season starts the 2nd Saturday with nothing changing here in NC.  Not sure what has changed in your state but it could be they want less birds killed due to brood numbers being down or other factors.  Our state has a turkey sighting survey from July 1st to August 31st, that I've taken part in for the last 7-8 years, and we get feedback immediately in September via E-mail with county by county results.

[LaLongbeard]

Louisiana has been edging the season opener later for a few years now. Our numbers are way down and poult recruitment hasn't been good for a long time. A lot of hunting pressure on a limited resource. The later openings have definitely lowered the harvest totals. When we had a mid March opener most of the kills were the first couple days, which is expected with any opener. However the late opener with Gobblers already henned up and less Gobbling definitely made it tougher. I'm glad La finally did something hopefully more Gobblers will survive and the population will start to rebound.

[fmf]

kinda wish they would do this in MS.  our season starts march 15 and it was cold and rainy until around april 1 before there was much gobbling in my area

I wish they would push it back for several selfish reasons that mostly revolve around less out of staters in the national forests, and more 2 year olds going into mid april when things really get good.

[davisd9]

South Carolina is opening later this season on private land in the Lowcountry area of the state.  Normally opens on Mar 15, but opening day is sliding to Mar 22 in Game Zones 3 and 4.  Game Zones 1 and 2 will still open Apr 1 along with all WMAs statewide.

SC Lowcountry has not been March 15th for a few years now. Was March 20th the last few.

[2eagles]

Iowa actually started a week earlier in 2019. They did that by only offering a 2 day youth season. It's not uncommon to hunt in snow in our first season. I really like our 4 season system to reduce the number of hunters in each season.

[Spitten and drummen]

I will never complain about a long season. If the weather is bad , its too cold , they are not gobbling or whatever the excuse is , just dont go. Wait until the perfect days and then hunt if thats what you want. Some believe that short seasons and not killing gobblers will rebound the population. Those 2 things are very very small pieces to the puzzle. One gobbler can breed all the hens and hens can store live sperm for more than a month. Now I agree you dont want to kill every gobbler in your neck of the woods and also I dont like killing jakes because they will be your hard gobbling 2 year olds the following year. The decline in population is more to do with nest raiders , predators and mainly habitat. Shorter seasons and less tags will not fix that problem.

[Prohunter3509]

kinda wish they would do this in MS.  our season starts march 15 and it was cold and rainy until around april 1 before there was much gobbling in my area

I wish they would push it back for several selfish reasons that mostly revolve around less out of staters in the national forests, and more 2 year olds going into mid april when things really get good.

I am in south central ms and I agree hold heartly

[LaLongbeard]

I will never complain about a long season. If the weather is bad , its too cold , they are not gobbling or whatever the excuse is , just dont go. Wait until the perfect days and then hunt if thats what you want. Some believe that short seasons and not killing gobblers will rebound the population. Those 2 things are very very small pieces to the puzzle. One gobbler can breed all the hens and hens can store live sperm for more than a month. Now I agree you dont want to kill every gobbler in your neck of the woods and also I dont like killing jakes because they will be your hard gobbling 2 year olds the following year. The decline in population is more to do with nest raiders , predators and mainly habitat. Shorter seasons and less tags will not fix that problem.

I agree with what your saying. However Louisiana has multiple issues habitat loss, poult recruitment(or lack of it) lots of nest predators etc. The season move  no doubt saved the lives  of a lot of Gobblers but did it help the population? Well from the past studies La has done most of the kills were before the actual breeding was complete. Clearly there were hens that never were bred because there were no Gobblers left to breed them. With a really low population it's possible to kill off the mature Gobblers and leave only Jakes which may or may not breed the hens. There is a lot still to be done nest predators are a huge impact. But I think the move is in the right direction.

[BBURN]

South Carolina is opening later this season on private land in the Lowcountry area of the state.  Normally opens on Mar 15, but opening day is sliding to Mar 22 in Game Zones 3 and 4.  Game Zones 1 and 2 will still open Apr 1 along with all WMAs statewide.

SC Lowcountry has not been March 15th for a few years now. Was March 20th the last few.

Roger that. I hunt the upstate and on public land so I'm used to the season opening for me on April 1.  I guess I got confused on the March 15 - March 22 opening date during all the bickering last year with the legislature. The one thing I hate about the whole deal is that it seems like public land hunters have no input on dates...especially when we are already losing hunting days by not being allowed to hunt on Sundays and late spring prescribed burns. Sucks that the Lowcountry lost days in the deal.