Decline of turkey population

[saltysenior]

  Talked to a Wildlife tech a couple years ago who lives and manages a WMA in Oklahoma and asked how many birds he thought was averaged taken on said WMA in a spring season . Limit is one bird .  He replied twenty five checked in and probably another twenty five not checked . Have also heard from general people that hunting license is only for city people , and get to private hunting places for opener and locals already limited . People , not necessarily all turkey hunters , if you know what I mean , could very well be a part of the problem . Urban sprawl and acreages are carving habitat up daily . How many of you have lost hunting places ? I think habitat and weather condition play a big role .

there are many areas where the turkeys adapted to a suburban area and seem to do better than the ones in the deeper woods habitat...

[dzsmith]

Yes, all of the above. KS has cut limits but don't know if will help much as most didn't tag out when you could take 2 gobblers in spring & 4 any sex in fall. I will adjust but really miss the old days (1981-2010) but will continue to hunt. One bird for an out of stater it is expensive so hopefully many will stay home?

many many many Midwest outfits are a pump and dump operation. they don't care what you kill, and many people from my neck of the woods go there for that exact reason.......please don't anybody chime in and act like this don't happen especially in Kansas. ive seen it with my own eyes. its rural...youre not gonna get caught. zero consequences ....

[GobbleNut]

Yes, all of the above. KS has cut limits but don't know if will help much as most didn't tag out when you could take 2 gobblers in spring & 4 any sex in fall. I will adjust but really miss the old days (1981-2010) but will continue to hunt. One bird for an out of stater it is expensive so hopefully many will stay home?

many many many Midwest outfits are a pump and dump operation. they don't care what you kill, and many people from my neck of the woods go there for that exact reason.......please don't anybody chime in and act like this don't happen especially in Kansas. ive seen it with my own eyes. its rural...youre not gonna get caught. zero consequences ....

Part of the problem is the states that ran their bag limits up to "umpteen zillion" because turkeys were flourishing at one time.  What that did was create an attitude in a bunch of hunters that the object of turkey hunting was to "kill the limit" rather than just go turkey hunting for the thrill of the experience.  I have said this many times before:  you don't have to kill every gobbler you call in just because it's legal.

Every year I hear guys bragging about killing several gobblers in a couple of days somewhere.  Why?  Couldn't they enjoy that hunt by killing one or two?  ..And if not, they need to ask themselves why not.

Turkey hunting is not about a "body count" folks!  Too many hunters having the attitude that "the limit is X, so I gotta kill X" is part of the reason we are having this discussion about why there aren't many gobblers around anymore in those places. 

You don't prove you are a good turkey hunter solely by body counts.  You prove it more importantly by being a conservationist, too,....and knowing when and where to stop shooting even though you haven't reached "the limit"!

[Spitten and drummen]

A lot of it is the time we live in now. People want it and want it now. They love hero pics to put on facebook. Many only care about themselves and instant gratification. I still say the leading problem is habitat management with nest raiders and predators being a close second. I dont shoot jakes and I will not bash people who do legally. That being said , the best gobbling birds are 2 year olds. You flop jakes where you hunt then you will not have as many gobbling 2 year olds. Just my opinion.

[jgard]

That is very true. No need to look further than the state of waterfowl hunting to see that the only thing that matters is shooting limits

[makestomstremble]

I live in northwest Oklahoma and the Rios out here are down considerably from 5 years ago. We still have birds, but they will be found in pockets of the best habitat available, not so widespread as in years past. I have seen a couple of groups of young birds in the last week which I was glad to see. I know we have had tremendous rain events the last couple of springs, I'm sure that didn't help. I don't think overgrazing is so critical on our birds, in fact, I think they do better where cattle are kept. Young poults have to be able to move through ground cover and hoof action from stock help make that possible. Birds are always around places cattle have been hayed during the winter, they seem to love to pick through that stuff.