What Is Being Done In Your State?

[mtns2hunt]

In Virginia they do run studies and surveys plus do some habitat management. We have a three bird limit 2 can be taken in the Fall or all three can be taken in the Spring which is usually how I take mine although after two I don't push it. There is a youth season which is popular. The turkey population appears very strong to me. I flew up about 35 plus birds during muzzle loading season and then had 8 Jake's march by my stand. Worried about those Jakes running off the long beards. Saw that happen about five years back. I cut wood on public land and see a lot of Turkeys there. In fact every time I go on public land I see turkeys.

[johnski]

Well in Connecticut they raised the bag limit to 5 bearded birds state wide in the spring (it was 2 on state land and 3 on private land and they just did away with the property distinctions) and they also went to all day hunting.  Meanwhile the fall bag limit is 3 either sex birds and a few years ago they did away with a dedicated turkey stamp and went to a residence game bird stamp to lump it in with pheasant, grouse etc.  So the short answer it seems is nothing but encouraging people to shoot more turkeys.

Wow!  Sounds like Connecticut turkeys are doing really well,...or there are a lot of people that want to get rid of them!  I can think of a bunch of states that would like to be in your position.

IMO the turkey population in Connecticut has declined in the last few years at least around me.  It seems the powers that be don't value turkey's.  Connecticut has mandatory reporting, by phone or computer, and they base the harvest numbers on that with no adjustment for people that don't report.    Up until a few years ago the reporting system was not user friendly and was frustrating to use even for someone like myself that is fairly computer literate so I could see people giving up.  To be fair I never used the automated phone system but I could see that being a pain as well. I am not saying that is an excuse but I could see some people going home cleaning the turkey and not bothering to report or trying to report and getting kicked out of the system a couple times and giving up.  I don't think people are necessarily shooting more then there limit I just don't think the state has a good handle on the true harvest.  The other states in the north east either have a 1 or 2 bird limit in the spring and next door neighbor, New York, is rumored to be kicking around the idea of idea of going to a one bird limit.  ( I don't know how true that is just a rumor I heard)

[Tom007]

Great thread. I live in NJ. I have seen declines in recent years with our turkeys. In my opinion, it seemed to coincide with coyote and bear increases. Our birds are not as vocal as they used to be, this is only my thoughts. The numbers taken each year have not drastically decreased, but they have gone down. I can only hope that it comes back. I think maybe shutting down the fall season for a year or so could help, and paying strict attention to season bag limits when bad winters and wet springs occur. This is important to mortality rates and future increases or decreases in the overall numbers. Be safe...