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hooks said:
I am all for pushing the season back; even if it is just one week. Think it would help a ton on the NR pressure on public lands.
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I agree, I have never seen so many non residents in our state as this year. The combination of other states pushing season back and the promotion of our state for license sales has been detrimental to our public lands this season. Not against non residents hunting here but we have got to limit the amount that can come by a quota draw or move our season a little so we are not the only state open and it will spread them out.
 
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Newt said:
Non resident need a quota limit asap
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Or, just open the season a week later, and half of them will decide to go elsewhere?
And the other half has less opportunity to decimate public land birds?
Drop the limit back to 2 birds annually?

Just some observations:

The "early" season non-resident turkey hunters tend to be much more accomplished turkey hunters (or killers) than most TN resident turkey hunters. They also seem to have less concern for the sustainability of the resource than do our resident hunters.

Never mind I am sometimes myself a non-resident hunter in other states, and I have friends who come to TN as non-resident hunters, so this not meant to come across as a hatred of non-residents. Just saying, non-residents, as a collective group of turkey hunters, have been "invited" by TWRA to come decimate our public lands' turkeys via of our early season opening and high bag limit.

Our non-resident turkey hunter "problem" has been caused more by TWRA than by those non-resident turkey hunters themselves?
 
deerfever said:
I agree, I have never seen so many non residents in our state as this year. The combination of other states pushing season back and the promotion of our state for license sales has been detrimental to our public lands this season. Not against non residents hunting here but we have got to limit the amount that can come by a quota draw or move our season a little so we are not the only state open and it will spread them out.
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that or make out of state turkey licenses expensive.
 
TheLBLman said:
Or, just open the season a week later, and half of them will decide to go elsewhere?
And the other half has less opportunity to decimate public land birds?
Drop the limit back to 2 birds annually?

Just some observations:

The "early" season non-resident turkey hunters tend to be much more accomplished turkey hunters (or killers) than most TN resident turkey hunters. They also seem to have less concern for the sustainability of the resource than do our resident hunters.

Never mind I am sometimes myself a non-resident hunter in other states, and I have friends who come to TN as non-resident hunters, so this not meant to come across as a hatred of non-residents. Just saying, non-residents, as a collective group of turkey hunters, have been "invited" by TWRA to come decimate our public lands' turkeys via of our early season opening and high bag limit.

Our non-resident turkey hunter "problem" has been caused more by TWRA than by those non-resident turkey hunters themselves?
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Yes I agree with that but what I am seeing this year in particular is the down south Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, boys coming up because they have already filled there home state tags so they are traveling north. All awhile the north states are taking advantage of our early start date. I have saw more out of state tags this year than the Covid year which is saying something.

With all that being said I am a out of state hunter my self I love it,but every state I travel to,which is not many so I am no expert. But I apply for a non resident tag if a draw awesome if not there is always next year. But those states operating this way are light years ahead imo.

I think that's going to be the best way to fight this battle especially with all the you tube stars chasing 49 states. Even if we drop back to 2 birds and back season up. Establish a NR quota and you know what is coming and going imo
 
This is what I'm seeing in different areas. Should be good next year if they survive
 

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I usually don't like to toss the term 'quota' around because it always means a lack of opportunity for someone, but for NRs and turkey hunting, I do support one. If other states can figure it out and put one in place, there is no reason we cannot. Other states do not have a monopoly on brain power. I do fear that it could eventually lead to a resident quota on certain public grounds though if resident pressure is deemed excessive somehow. After seeing and hearing about the duck hunting disaster this past fall, I guess that fear has already came to fruition in a way.

I think a better idea would be to introduce a turkey stamp to hunt spring turkey and greatly increase the price for NRs. I would be glad to separate turkey hunting out of the big game stamp and pay for it separately in the spring; albeit at a decent price since I am a resident. I see residents benefitting with reduced NR pressure and improved public lands (assuming that money made on turkey stamps would be reinvested). I also see cash flows staying relatively stable for TWRA and potentially increasing. Also, no BS 3-day or 7-day turkey stamp for NRs. If they want to hunt turkeys in TN, pay up for the resource that is being utilized.
 
TheLBLman said:
Just saying, non-residents, as a collective group of turkey hunters, have been "invited" by TWRA to come decimate our public lands' turkeys via of our early season opening and high bag limit.
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And actual paid advertisements, paid for with our license fees, literally inviting non-residents to come kill our turkeys, which advertisements aired during youtube videos showing non-residents hunting public lands by boat and killing TN turkeys.
 
I've mentioned it before but it's worth mentioning again. Careful what you wish for on limiting NR hunters because NR hunters make up approx 70% of the budgeted funds. That's a lot of money slated for resident use and upkeep of public lands. You reduce that by 30-40% that's a huge loss in revenue and residents are the ones that will feel that.

Again not debating one way or the other but just make sure you understand where the money comes from that we all benefit from and then form your opinions from that. I fully understand both sides of the coin so I don't know what the answer is.
 
REN said:
I've mentioned it before but it's worth mentioning again. Careful what you wish for on limiting NR hunters because NR hunters make up approx 70% of the budgeted funds. That's a lot of money slated for resident use and upkeep of public lands. You reduce that by 30-40% that's a huge loss in revenue and residents are the ones that will feel that.

Again not debating one way or the other but just make sure you understand where the money comes from that we all benefit from and then form your opinions from that. I fully understand both sides of the coin so I don't know what the answer is.
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Cut tag numbers and up the NR fees. If they want it, they will come. I put my name in the hat every year for various states that offer something I don't have here.

*Are you saying TWRA gets 70% of its funding from NR? If so, thats ridiculous.
 
AT Hiker said:
Cut tag numbers and up the NR fees. If they want it, they will come. I put my name in the hat every year for various states that offer something I don't have here.

*Are you saying TWRA gets 70% of its funding from NR? If so, thats ridiculous.
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It's close to that and that's a pretty common number around the us. NR fees are VERY high. On average it takes 3 residents to equal 1 NR

It's why there is always a big push to NR because it takes fewer numbers to get the same amount of money

It's a fine line though because at some point the cost outweighs the gains so just raising the NR fee cut a lot of NR folks out.

The other issue is Tn like a lot of southern states include all tags in the base license so raising the fee impacts deer hunters as well even if they don't turkey hunt.

To be clear that's not 70% of all funding, that's 70% of license sale budget. Obviously they get federal money as well as other avenues of funding added in.
 
AT Hiker said:
Wyoming NR is less than 50%, its also the least populated state.
Be more like WY.
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Will know more on WY after this year. Them putting in NR tag reductions is going to have a significant impact on their income vs previous years. They are taking a big risk so we will see how it plays out.

Based on conversations I've had with other state agencies they all seem to think they are making a big mistake in doing so.
 
REN said:
Will know more on WY after this year. Them putting in NR tag reductions is going to have a significant impact on their income vs previous years. They are taking a big risk so we will see how it plays out.

Based on conversations I've had with other state agencies they all seem to think they are making a big mistake in doing so.
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The sheep, moose, bison 90/10 will have very little if any impact on WY funding.
Now, if they do 90/10 on other species, that might change it up some. However, it's pure supply and demand…I promise you countless people would hand over basically any amount of money for a tag. See MT, they just screwed over NR but it didn't slow us down.
 
AT Hiker said:
The sheep, moose, bison 90/10 will have very little if any impact on WY funding.
Now, if they do 90/10 on other species, that might change it up some. However, it's pure supply and demand…I promise you countless people would hand over basically any amount of money for a tag. See MT, they just screwed over NR but it didn't slow us down.
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Maybe so. I just go by the numbers we get from states and organizations like GoHunt and Epic outdoors.

In western states it's not the tags that get the money it's the total application fees. All of which are down this year so far for those western states as far as NR applicants and especially NEW applicants
 
REN said:
Maybe so. I just go by the numbers we get from states and organizations like GoHunt and Epic outdoors.

In western states it's not the tags that get the money it's the total application fees. All of which are down this year so far for those western states as far as NR applicants and especially NEW applicants
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Having said that it's not a fair comparison to those states just do to the major difference is species and desire.
 
REN said:
Maybe so. I just go by the numbers we get from states and organizations like GoHunt and Epic outdoors.

In western states it's not the tags that get the money it's the total application fees. All of which are down this year so far for those western states as far as NR applicants and especially NEW applicants
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I could only hope applications are down.
Last year records were broke across many states for applications.
States changed things up some too, MT for example had a outfitter pool plus it increased its preference point fee by double.
CO cut out more OTC units which should have forced more into the draw.
WY, NV and AZ are not done with applications. If those states see a decrease in applicants and point purchases you will hear me celebrate!
Plus, you can opt out of a application and do points only. I study the drought in areas so some years I apply and some years I do points only. Each state varies so it's not a blanket statement, I'm sure your fully aware of those complexities though.
 
Currently $68 for TN residents to hunt small game, big game with gun (turkey AND deer), and fish annually.

Currently $214.50 for nonresident to hunt 7 days for turkey only (fishing not included in those 7 days)

$305 for NR annual license (turkey plus deer). Does NOT include fishing.

NRs pay 5x as much as residents to hunt turkeys and fish TN annually. Is that enough?
 
No idea why there are a bunch of Jake's this year. We have 6-10 on our place, which is a huge improvement from years past. I also can't explain why so many are being killed
 

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