TN Turkey Limit Thread

[dzsmith]

how I wish this would happen in Mississippi . TN has better bird numbers and harvests more birds and you guys are already considering dropping the limit...they'll become extinct in ms before any changes are made.

Yeah, in the email I wrote you could basically replace Tennessee with Mississippi and the same would be true.

TN may have better numbers in some areas, but I can assure you the majority of the state is not what you see on all the YouTube channels. My area and NW Mississippi are merely a shell of what they were 10-15 years ago.

oh no doubt about it. that's true for many places I imagine.

[shatcher]

I can't speak for East TN, but western Mid TN, Humphreys County in particular, doesn't have the turkeys it did a few years ago.  TWRA used to trap on the farm I own.  On a rainy day, the creek bottoms would have 80-90 birds in it.  I'm lucky to count a dozen now.  I hope Humphreys gets reduced.

[timberjack86]

We still have good numbers in East TN but I feel like we should conserve what we have before it's too late like some west and middle Tn counties. If the limit is dropped to 2 that's 50 Percent more gobblers saved and hopefully have a chance to breed late nesting hens. We have had a massive harvest this year and we will be seeing the effects of it in the coming years I'm sure. I hear alot of guys complaining about the lack of gobblers and gobbling here on the east side.

[shatcher]

The increased harvest in TN is due to folks being out of work, high school and college age kids being able to hunt all the time, not because we have more birds.  That is another topic as they ride up and down the road, shoot from the road and get dropped off to slip in on another man's property.  I killed birds, but it has been a frustrating season.  I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'll be glad when this season is over.

[AppalachianHollers]

We still have good numbers in East TN but I feel like we should conserve what we have before it's too late like some west and middle Tn counties. If the limit is dropped to 2 that's 50 Percent more gobblers saved and hopefully have a chance to breed late nesting hens. We have had a massive harvest this year and we will be seeing the effects of it in the coming years I'm sure. I hear alot of guys complaining about the lack of gobblers and gobbling here on the east side.

Again, I don't think it's 50% more gobblers saved because a very tiny percentage of all the gobblers harvested were someone's 3rd or 4th bird. Might be a statistically significant marginal effect, but not trajectory-changing.
It's more people than normal getting their 1st and maybe 2nd bird.

I do however wish that we managed public lands better for turkeys for the past 20 years. A few WMAs are now heading in the right direction with clear cutting and controlled burns, but there might be more decline before we really cash in those efforts.

I only hope there's a ceiling to public land pressure. In a given place within close distance of a forest service road in Cherokee NF, much of it requires over an hour of driving just to get out of the car, and even many smaller WMAs prohibit ATVs, meaning you have to walk miles to get to the other side.


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[TNTRKYHunter]

The increased harvest in TN is due to folks being out of work, high school and college age kids being able to hunt all the time, not because we have more birds.  That is another topic as they ride up and down the road, shoot from the road and get dropped off to slip in on another man's property.  I killed birds, but it has been a frustrating season.  I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'll be glad when this season is over.

I completely agree!! There has been a large influx of hunters this spring that would normally either not hunt at all or not near as much as this season. That definitely has increased the harvest of birds that would have likely survived and carried over to next season ( I would estimate > 5000). Unfortunately, that will not happen. Therefore, next spring will be quieter and there will be a lot of frustrated hunters due to the lack of a hunt able population of gobblers. I want to be optimistic that the TWRA and TFWC will actually get their heads out of the sand and realize that if they don't implement changes, our turkey populations will continue to decline. As others have said, just because one region is good; doesn't mean others are the same. Also, many hunters from areas that the populations are declining are traveling to areas with more birds. Ultimately, the populations in these areas cannot withstand this constant increase in pressure and harvest. Finally, these regions will decline as well and our statewide turkey populations will be dismal. I have sent my comments to the TWRA and emailed commissioners. Hopeful they are listening to the public now more than ever.


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[Tennessee Lead]

2 bird statewide and 1 bird non resident fingers crossed


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[Gmed]

Agree with the two bird limit....put in my suggestions to TWRA today....

[AppalachianHollers]

What's the argument, here?

That it takes a certain number of gobblers to breed late breeding hens? That there won't be enough mature gobblers to breed hens the next year?

I'm willing to do whatever it takes to let turkey populations stabilize and rise again. But lowering the bag limit statewide isn't the ticket if harvest isn't the problem statewide.


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[dzsmith]

2 bird statewide and 1 bird non resident fingers crossed


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as hateful and overreaching as it may appear. I do think different bag limits for non residents in a interesting idea. Would love to see that in the Ms. even myself when im hunting on the road, I generally leave after killing a bird in that state.

[strutstopper]

I can't speak for East TN, but western Mid TN, Humphreys County in particular, doesn't have the turkeys it did a few years ago.  TWRA used to trap on the farm I own.  On a rainy day, the creek bottoms would have 80-90 birds in it.  I'm lucky to count a dozen now.  I hope Humphreys gets reduced.

I agree completely!

[PalmettoRon]

2 bird statewide and 1 bird non resident fingers crossed


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as hateful and overreaching as it may appear. I do think different bag limits for non residents in a interesting idea. Would love to see that in the Ms. even myself when im hunting on the road, I generally leave after killing a bird in that state.

My state of SC allows 3 gobblers for residents, but 2 for non-residents. The NR hunting license is already quite high, but SC also charges NR's an additional $100 for the tags while charging residents only $5. I don't like the idea of treating NR's differently. I usually hunt multiple states and while I don't mind paying more for a NR license/tag, I would mind having my out of state bag limit being reduced especially when much of my hunting is done on National Forest land.

[PalmettoRon]

To clarify, I don't mind the disparity in what a NR pays to hunt out of state compared to a resident-to a point, however, once a NR pays up, I think he or she should have the same opportunity to bag the legal limit.

[LRD]

What's the argument, here?

That it takes a certain number of gobblers to breed late breeding hens? That there won't be enough mature gobblers to breed hens the next year?

I'm willing to do whatever it takes to let turkey populations stabilize and rise again. But lowering the bag limit statewide isn't the ticket if harvest isn't the problem statewide.


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For the Southern Middle TN counties and the MS River counties, TWRA is planning to push season back two weeks and reduce the limit to two.  The reason for pushing the season back two weeks is to allow more hens to be bred by available gobblers before they are killed because traditionally the season starts prior to peak breading.  Reducing the limit to two birds helps with the breeding as well as ensuring more birds make it to the following year to breed.  I think that this is important going forward to at least help with all of the birds killed this year.  The record harvest is linked to more people hunting and more time in the woods than more turkeys being available. 

There are many, many other areas that are seeing the same effects now as Southern Middle TN did a few years ago including my area that's not isolated to just one small farm.  Some small pockets seem to be flourishing like mine was two years ago, but there are more and more areas across the state starting to see drastic decline.  Many people say that we could have exceeded the carrying capacity for certain areas and starting to level out.  This is not true for my area as there is lot of good turkey habitat that is basically void of birds for no reason that held a strong population just a few years ago.  These actions may not be a fix all or even help, but it is something that the state can do proactively to help manage the turkey population.

[LRD]

Added the below to the original post:

The actual meeting can be found on youtube via the link below.  Around the hour and 57 min mark is where they talk about turkeys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy5EbwkDjjY