Bag Limits

[rakkin6]

I hunt on federal land here in Tennessee(Fort Campbell Army Base) being a retiree from the Army. We are only allowed 2 birds a year on the base and only 1 per day. These are bonus birds and don't count toward your Tennessee or Kentucky limit. Tennessee just dropped it's limit from  4 birds to 3 and only 1 per day. If I am not mistaken Tennessee has always been 1 per day or at least since I started turkey hunting.

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[slicksbeagles1]

I agree with reducing limits and only 1 bird a day but the game and fish people also need to figure out what is causing population decline in nature other than predators.

[slicksbeagles1]

You are correct Tennessee is only 1 bird per day

[ChesterCopperpot]

I agree with reducing limits and only 1 bird a day but the game and fish people also need to figure out what is causing population decline in nature other than predators.

I think they have a good grasp on causation of decline, and a piss poor understanding of overall population numbers balanced against increasing pressure. I posted this podcast link in another thread awhile ago, but I think Mike Chamberlain does a great job of talking about these issues. He's a biologist and researcher at Univ. of Georgia, but above all else he's a turkey nut like us: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hunting-public/id1124616529?i=1000473597465&fbclid=IwAR2TfSVI2R5ShKM301QxqSrCE3sZjLmua7zSoYSZFAwb9Y_OX16-VFmLER0

[Gooserbat]

As an Okie I've been killing my three birds per year for years but for the last few years I've went to a self imposed one per county limit.  Now everyone has to follow suit...I'm such a trend setter.

[Hook hanger]

I live in a state where it's one per day on harvest.  First time I was in a state that allowed multiple in one day I forgot to kill the other one flogging my bird. Since then I have killed 3 in one set up and after doing that a few times and having to pack out that much weight for quite a distance. I choose to  never shoot more than 2 in one sitting because it is just too much to carry out. I have been with a buddy where we killed 4 in one morning by 8AM. Two on first set up and one each on 2 different set ups. Was a wild morning with lightning and birds in just the right mood. In my opinion what does it matter as long as we don't go over the total limit. Less days afield is less disturbance for nesting hens.

[eggshell]

I don't think there is an answer that universally works. Each state and area needs to be looked at individually. Still the general principles do apply. My personal opinion does agree with most tings said. We have not seen the big decline in my area, but it has leveled off from the big saturation after reintroduction. Some people complain that there are less turkeys, but I have kept a pretty close eye on it and I agree there is less than there was at one time, but it has been basically unchanged for the last 15 years, allowing for year to year fluctuations. Our habitat is stable and holding what it should.

I am lucky I have a situation where I have a lot of control over a big chunk of land (~1200 acres ). I keep track of the birds on it and control how many are taken as best I can. I set a self imposed limit of 1/3 of the gobblers I have accounted for to be harvested. Now we also fall hunt this and the gobbler limit is carried over from spring, if the limit was killed in spring then no mature gobblers are shot in the fall. I only allow hens and poults and that has a limit. The turkey population has been very stable on this land for many years, actually decades. I won't even take multiple birds off the same group or ridge. I spread the kill over the whole farm. This year I accounted for 10 mature gobblers and 11 jakes on this farm and we killed 3 longbeards and one jake. It works for me, I have good hunting every year and plenty of turkeys.

[slicksbeagles1]

Thanks for sharing ChesterCopperpot very interesting interview it answers some of my questions

[LaLongbeard]

Louisiana has a 1 per day 2 per season limit but allow Jakes to be killed. Very very few La hunters kill 2 but even fewer let Jakes go. This season alone the harvest total was up a few hundred and most of them were Jakes. Finally had a few survive hatching and they shoot em. I never kill two Gobblers in the same area and a lot of years I stop at one. Depends on how many I can find while scouting. Our problems aren't hunters killing too many but I wish they would outlaw the Jake killing except maybe for youth hunters.

[Howie g]

The only reason Mississippi has any carry over annually is because of the no Jake law .
With the pressure we get .
I wish all states would install this law .

[redleg06]

I think the bag limits have a relatively minimal effect unless you go down to one or two turkey and here's why I say that. Here in Alabama, MOST of the guys I know that hunt only take one MAYBE two birds per season anyway. Very few (of the guys I know anyway) shoot their 3rd or 4th or 5th bird. Thats just a general observation and there are obviously exceptions. *Edited for clarity- I would be completely ok if we went to a two bird limit, I just don't think it would have all that dramatic of an effect since most guys (your average joe hunter) aren't shooting more than two anyway, regardless of bag limit.

What I DO think would help a lot of the southern (specifically South East) states is to move the opener back a week or two. Give the birds a couple more weeks of breeding without being disturbed and thinned out. In our area anyway, the first two-three weeks of the season are the most pressured and that also lines up with the prime breeding weeks.

I also think that we would be wise to ban hen harvest (bearded or otherwise) regardless of it being spring or fall season. A hen is a hen regardless of beard and whether or not it's fall or spring. We need all the hens we can retain for breeding and reproduction.

[redleg06]

I also agree with others about banning jakes. Let them grow up and get in the breeding population

[Wasp]

I hear what you guys are saying.  It would seem to me to figure out the cause of the decline rather than continually lowering limits.  Do you think the decline is caused by:
- Increased pressure
- Decrease in non-developed land
- Poor habitat
- Predation (coons, snakes, coyotes, etc)

In SC where I hunt, (home of the NWTF) the management is non-existent on the WMA's.  Weve had a17 yconsecutive year decline, with no idea why.  South Carolina pays people to manage this and there are no efforts to increase habitat or plant food plots at least on the two WMA's I hunt.  So my question being if just continuing to lower the bag limit is all that is ever done there is no indication that will yield higher numbers of turkeys or  even slow the decline.  If we do not know what had caused the decline, limiting bag limits may be a short term fix but there is no reason to believe it will be a long term solution.

[Spurs Up]

Need to remember that cutting the bag limit in half won't save half the gobblers. It will spare some, but on hard-hunted areas most will be killed by someone else. That's not all bad, however, it's probably not the solution most of us think it is.

If you can believe the figures the states put out, there's not a single state that averages even one gobbler per hunter. In most all of them, most hunters don't kill a turkey in a given year. Very few kill a limit. I don't think bag limits are the answer.

[redleg06]

I hear what you guys are saying.  It would seem to me to figure out the cause of the decline rather than continually lowering limits.  Do you think the decline is caused by:
- Increased pressure
- Decrease in non-developed land
- Poor habitat
- Predation (coons, snakes, coyotes, etc)

In SC where I hunt, (home of the NWTF) the management is non-existent on the WMA's.  Weve had a17 yconsecutive year decline, with no idea why.  South Carolina pays people to manage this and there are no efforts to increase habitat or plant food plots at least on the two WMA's I hunt.  So my question being if just continuing to lower the bag limit is all that is ever done there is no indication that will yield higher numbers of turkeys or  even slow the decline.  If we do not know what had caused the decline, limiting bag limits may be a short term fix but there is no reason to believe it will be a long term solution.

I think its a combination of factors:

-Habitat decline
-Increase in Predator numbers (specifically nest predators like raccoons, possums, skunks)
-Hunter's taking X amount of birds (this is a bigger deal when the first two issues are preventing the population from regenerating numbers at a level to prevent further decline).   As I mentioned before, the WHEN also matters IMO... meaning if we wipe out a chunk of the gobbler population in the first two weeks of the season, that time frame usually overlaps with the peak breeding weeks (at least in most of the Southern States) so it has to have some effect on Hens being bred. Hens don't just get bred one random day and then they're done with it AND there's a pecking order so it has a ripple effect when the boss gobblers get whacked early in the breeding cycle.