Lower bag limit in Oklahoma

[bigbird]

Starting this fall, turkey gun hunters will be allowed to harvest one tom only in the 14 counties that previously permitted either-sex harvest. Archery hunters will still be allowed one turkey of either sex statewide in the fall.

Next spring, all counties outside the Southeast Region will have a one tom limit. The spring turkey season limit remains unchanged at three toms. None of the changes made will affect existing regulations in the Southeast Region for turkey hunting, where the season limit is one tom turkey for all eight counties combined.

Chief of Wildlife Bill Dinkines told Commissioners declining turkey numbers during the past two years, especially in southwestern Oklahoma, prompted the bag limit changes.

[jgard]

At least it is a start

[TonyTurk]

I do most of my hunting in Western OK, mix of public and private.  This was needed in my opinion, but will only stop the honest people from killing multiple birds in one county.  The slobs and poachers will continue to shoot as many as they want.

[Sir-diealot]

Still hoping to hunt there in the Spring, from all I have read and heard this is needed though I wish all states would go to a tom only season both Spring and Fall.

[bigbird]

The landowner I hunt on said that droughts are playing hell on them. I haven't been out there since '17   I stay in touch with him each year to get a report and he has cattle and water and everything else they like in that part of the state and he said his local flock has gone from 40-50 birds hanging out there to 8-12.

[turkeyfool]

I burned up the roads from Woodward down to Pack Saddle all the way down through Black Kettle to Cheyenne in late April. It was late in the season, but based on what I saw, this couldn't hurt. I struggled to find anything and the other people I talked to had a hard time as well

[jgard]

We are way down in numbers In the ne part of the state as well. Cold wet springs have not helped. Ione of my places is 160 acres. I have trapped 39 raccoons since Jan 1

[PalmettoRon]

SW OK and the neighboring Panhandle of TX are really down. It has been very dry in that area and fires have been a problem also wiping out some longstanding roosts. The drought has resulted in multiple years of poor recruitment. Nonetheless, in TX one can legally mow down 4 gobblers a day and over bait to boot. That really needs to change, but in my many years of traveling to TX to hunt gobblers, the locals as a whole have very little interest in turkeys. Deer and quail is another completely different issue. I hope things can return to years in the past when the turkeys were unbelievably thick.

[jgard]

With a rifle in Texas no less

[Gooserbat]

The decline in Western Oklahoma is a mix of things.  I've heard hogs, eye worms, wildfires, drought, floods, predators and over harvest.  Truth is it's likely to some extent all of the above.  Some of the things can be addressed but fires and weather are only what your delt.  I like the one tom per county.  I've been trying to self impose this for the last few years. 

[Paulmyr]

We are way down in numbers In the ne part of the state as well. Cold wet springs have not helped. Ione of my places is 160 acres. I have trapped 39 raccoons since Jan 1

Here in MN the breeding seasons for racoons is around mid Feb through March. I would imagine it's something similar where you live. They are on the move looking for mates. Keep stacking them during that time period and you'll be helping all of the surrounding area as well.

[TonyTurk]

I'm hopeful that this new rule might reduce the insane number of out-of-state hunters that show up at some of the more well known WMAs every spring.

I believe that a big reason for the decline, not only in Western OK but a lot of other places, has been the exponential increase in the number of out-of-state hunters.  We have all seen the videos of the famous hunters taking a group of 6 guys to Oklahoma, killing 10-12 turkeys, then moving on to Kansas where they kill another 10-12, then on to Nebraska, etc.  Everyone sees those videos and thinks "hey I can do that too".  Then 15 years later, we have to reduce bag limits because the turkeys are scarce.

Reducing bag limits wasn't needed when most guys only hunted close to home, which wasn't that long ago.  I wouldn't mind if OK went to some sort of limited-entry draw system for those Western WMAs, to reduce the pressure, at least until the population rebounds. 

[akp]

Bird numbers out west are a small fraction of what they were 15 years ago.  small fraction......

[jakepayers]

I'm from SWOK and have had the opportunity to watch our winter flock fall at a steady pace from roughly 450 birds down to around 250 over the past few years. The trend has been noticeable for several years for those paying attention. We went from seeing 50+ strutters at fly down three years ago to two dozen this year.

The last several springs have been odd, either being really dry or sporadic flooding. Most of our land is along the river, so at first I had wondered if the flooding was the primary cause. Talking with other people from Oklahoma I started to believe it to be a statewide issue, and now I have had the chance to talk with several other out of starters making me think it could be nationwide.

The new regulations are a step in the right direction, while my friends and I still wish to see things tightened down more. Perhaps make Oklahoma a two-bird state and apply a no-jake law. Regulations will help the curve, but private landowners and those who hunt private lands can also play a big role simply in their own hunting behaviors. We normally see 15-20 toms taken a year off our place, and to my knowledge we did not kill any this year by choice. I'm not saying everyone has to take things to that extreme, but us having seen our numbers almost cut in half it led us to take things pretty seriously.

Overall I'm happy with the changes and would welcome even more.