Almost 1,000 were killed since Friday!

Just another example of what a very, very small % of Tennessee turkey hunters this site makes up.

Turkeys are still dying all across the state, so there is still plenty of action, even with Saturday's weather being the pits over most of the state!

As has been the case all season, the percentage of jakes is abnormally high.

Naturally Saturday was going to be a good kill day based on the number of folks here who posted birds here. And some really good long spurred birds as well!

Weather is going to be better this week, we might get a few more killed. Data i've collected from TWRA hunter toolbox since it started keeping data. 2022 is as of 7:00AM est 05/09/22

One thing I've noticed about the statewide harvest data, that misleads, regarding the turkey populations:

An increasing amount of the kills seem to be coming from "new" areas previously void of turkeys.
Not that his isn't a good thing, but why are the populations in such decline in long established areas?

Also, in many the long established areas, the habitat has actually progressively improved over the last many years for turkeys, yet turkeys seem to be declining much as did the bobwhite quail before them.
We're missing something, and I believe over-harvesting as well.

TheLBLman said:

One thing I've noticed about the statewide harvest data, that misleads, regarding the turkey populations:

An increasing amount of the kills seem to be coming from "new" areas previously void of turkeys.
Not that his isn't a good thing, but why are the populations in such decline in long established areas?

Also, in many the long established areas, the habitat has actually progressively improved over the last many years for turkeys, yet turkeys seem to be declining much as did the bobwhite quail before them.
We're missing something, and I believe over-harvesting as well.

Click to expand...

Also there is no numbers of actual hunters. Number of kills could remain steady because you've increased hunter participation 10X what it was.

Looks like we're still almost 2700 birds behind last year...which is not unexpected given the pandemic hunter numbers. And crappy hatches. And reduced limit. And so on and so forth.

Up until 5 years ago when I killed four birds a year, there were at least twice that many left over on the properties I hunted on. Now, I have killed two total in the last five years and seeing any leftovers anywhere during the summer/fall is rare. This year was far better, but my area is still down at least 75% from 5 years ago.

I kilt a good one Saturday in the slop.

Shooter77 said:

Weather is going to be better this week, we might get a few more killed. Data i've collected from TWRA hunter toolbox since it started keeping data. 2022 is as of 7:00AM est 05/09/22

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I like this data. I'm a numbers guy. Love it.

If you look at 09 jakes and 10 adults, you can see that 08 would have had a great hatch.

I would put an asterisk beside 20 and maybe 21 due to Covid inflating the kill numbers. I'm sure without Covid we'd killed in the low 30s, and probably 2022 would be better. But Covid hurt I think.

I cannot speak for the entire state.

But I keep very good records on what I see and hear, not just hunting but driving down the road since my work consist of me driving a lot each day. And this ain't Highway miles, it's 100-120 miles daily on country back roads. From 06-07 the turkeys basically disappeared in most all Lawrence and southern Giles. Lincoln and Wayne also fell off, but not like Lawrence did. Or southern Giles. For Giles county Highway 64 might as well be Trump's border wall, because south of it there are basically no birds.
I do believe they made a slight comeback in 2010, but fell off again and it's been bad ever since. Or bad compared to the 90s and early 00s.

I have several theories and beliefs. And I think it is a combination of all of it.

1. More hunters each year. Hunting started getting cool when social media came out, I think Facebook and stuff got started in 06 or so. You tube shortly after. And we continue to get more turkey hunters. And I think it is not necessarily a good thing, especially someone as passionate and yet somewhat selfish about them as I am. I'm all for folks hunting and killing gobblers. But try to put back in what you can, and don't be unethical with it. Or don't kill just to say you killed it.

2. Decoys and methods have made it easier. Decoys became popular right on time with the sudden sharp decline. I think most people didn't use decoys in the beginning because they were cheap and un-realistic. Illegal where I was raised in Alabama. But when social media and stuff start advertising, such as these 100$ avian x people started thinking turkey hunting was cool and it recruited more hunters that weren't about the sport, just the kill.
Shotguns have also come a long ways. Folks been using good guns and sights for a long time. But with the popularity of patterning and number chasers it got worse. I remember when you just used an 1100 with high brass magnum 6s and tried to get them within 30 yards. Now you can shoot 70 yards.

3. Loss of habitat will always be an issue. As we grow we build more houses, convert more woods into row crops. Some folks also keep their places well bush hogged and all, which is fine. But a pretty looking good of just regular grass does zero for turkey poults. Not enough people care about the resource, or are simply uneducated about it.

If I were turkey commander in chief, I'd outlaw all male turkey decoys, start season roughly two weeks later than what it is, gobblers only, and keep the bag limit at 4 or so with still a fall season. (Fall season gobblers only as well.) bag limit shouldn't matter if the hens are bred and raising broods.

woodsman04 said:

I like this data. I'm a numbers guy. Love it.

If you look at 09 jakes and 10 adults, you can see that 08 would have had a great hatch.

I would put an asterisk beside 20 and maybe 21 due to Covid inflating the kill numbers. I'm sure without Covid we'd killed in the low 30s, and probably 2022 would be better. But Covid hurt I think.

I cannot speak for the entire state.

But I keep very good records on what I see and hear, not just hunting but driving down the road since my work consist of me driving a lot each day. And this ain't Highway miles, it's 100-120 miles daily on country back roads. From 06-07 the turkeys basically disappeared in most all Lawrence and southern Giles. Lincoln and Wayne also fell off, but not like Lawrence did. Or southern Giles. For Giles county Highway 64 might as well be Trump's border wall, because south of it there are basically no birds.
I do believe they made a slight comeback in 2010, but fell off again and it's been bad ever since. Or bad compared to the 90s and early 00s.

I have several theories and beliefs. And I think it is a combination of all of it.

1. More hunters each year. Hunting started getting cool when social media came out, I think Facebook and stuff got started in 06 or so. You tube shortly after. And we continue to get more turkey hunters. And I think it is not necessarily a good thing, especially someone as passionate and yet somewhat selfish about them as I am. I'm all for folks hunting and killing gobblers. But try to put back in what you can, and don't be unethical with it. Or don't kill just to say you killed it.

2. Decoys and methods have made it easier. Decoys became popular right on time with the sudden sharp decline. I think most people didn't use decoys in the beginning because they were cheap and un-realistic. Illegal where I was raised in Alabama. But when social media and stuff start advertising, such as these 100$ avian x people started thinking turkey hunting was cool and it recruited more hunters that weren't about the sport, just the kill.
Shotguns have also come a long ways. Folks been using good guns and sights for a long time. But with the popularity of patterning and number chasers it got worse. I remember when you just used an 1100 with high brass magnum 6s and tried to get them within 30 yards. Now you can shoot 70 yards.

3. Loss of habitat will always be an issue. As we grow we build more houses, convert more woods into row crops. Some folks also keep their places well bush hogged and all, which is fine. But a pretty looking good of just regular grass does zero for turkey poults. Not enough people care about the resource, or are simply uneducated about it.

If I were turkey commander in chief, I'd outlaw all male turkey decoys, start season roughly two weeks later than what it is, gobblers only, and keep the bag limit at 4 or so with still a fall season. (Fall season gobblers only as well.) bag limit shouldn't matter if the hens are bred and raising broods.

Click to expand...

I'd say you are pretty much spot on. 4 birds on my farms per person is too much for the population to handle long term, but it would give some hardcore hunters the opportunity to hunt the entire season without having to travel to other states after tagging out on a 2 or 3 bird limit. Pushing season opener back 2 weeks would possibly be the most beneficial change.

poorhunter said:

Up until 5 years ago when I killed four birds a year, there were at least twice that many left over on the properties I hunted on. Now, I have killed two total in the last five years and seeing any leftovers anywhere during the summer/fall is rare. This year was far better, but my area is still down at least 75% from 5 years ago.

Click to expand...

Wow, what region of the state? I, II, III, or IV? that is a huge decrease, any idea why in your specific area?

I am starting to think that pushing the season opener back might be the best compromise. No way the decoy crowd will give up their crutch and lowering limits is not really going to move the needle IMO. Start it mid April and maybe Even cut off hunting at noon.

Speedwell-Hunter said:

Wow, what region of the state? I, II, III, or IV? that is a huge decrease, any idea why in your specific area?

Click to expand...

Hickman County, middle Tennessee. In my area where I live and hunt, it happened one winter. I was seeing the usual flocks of hens/poults and gobblers while deer hunting, and then there were almost zero birds in the spring…spring of 2017 or 16, can't remember for sure which. We went from picking and choosing which birds to kill and having tons left over yo not even heating a roost gobble most mornings. I live where I can just sit in my porch and listen to gobbling, but when they went down they went down hard and haven't recovered yet. I have access to 15 or so farms from 40-250 acres in size, some of which border one another, so I have a lot of room to roam and went from having 15-25 toms to hunt down to maybe 5-6 and a lot of those got killed by neighbors (with decoys mostly) so I just basically quit killing turkeys for a few years. Used to have a couple winter flocks in 100-150 range, and then suddenly we didn't even have what could be called a "flock". In my case I blame disease on the massive die off and poor management by hunters (legally) for the continued population stagnation.

poorhunter said:

Hickman County, middle Tennessee. In my area where I live and hunt, it happened one winter. I was seeing the usual flocks of hens/poults and gobblers while deer hunting, and then there were almost zero birds in the spring…spring of 2017 or 16, can't remember for sure which. We went from picking and choosing which birds to kill and having tons left over yo not even heating a roost gobble most mornings. I live where I can just sit in my porch and listen to gobbling, but when they went down they went down hard and haven't recovered yet. I have access to 15 or so farms from 40-250 acres in size, some of which border one another, so I have a lot of room to roam and went from having 15-25 toms to hunt down to maybe 5-6 and a lot of those got killed by neighbors (with decoys mostly) so I just basically quit killing turkeys for a few years. Used to have a couple winter flocks in 100-150 range, and then suddenly we didn't even have what could be called a "flock". In my case I blame disease on the massive die off and poor management by hunters (legally) for the continued population stagnation.

Click to expand...

that is a crazy story, massive decrease in spite of a huge amount of land to hunt. Question, how did you get access to so much land? thanks

Speedwell-Hunter said:

that is a crazy story, massive decrease in spite of a huge amount of land to hunt. Question, how did you get access to so much land? thanks

Click to expand...

I have lots of friends that have property and don't hunt! I've taken them or their boys to hunt, but none have really taken to it so I have pretty much free reign.

woodsman04 said:

I like this data. I'm a numbers guy. Love it.

If you look at 09 jakes and 10 adults, you can see that 08 would have had a great hatch.

I would put an asterisk beside 20 and maybe 21 due to Covid inflating the kill numbers. I'm sure without Covid we'd killed in the low 30s, and probably 2022 would be better. But Covid hurt I think.

I cannot speak for the entire state.

But I keep very good records on what I see and hear, not just hunting but driving down the road since my work consist of me driving a lot each day. And this ain't Highway miles, it's 100-120 miles daily on country back roads. From 06-07 the turkeys basically disappeared in most all Lawrence and southern Giles. Lincoln and Wayne also fell off, but not like Lawrence did. Or southern Giles. For Giles county Highway 64 might as well be Trump's border wall, because south of it there are basically no birds.
I do believe they made a slight comeback in 2010, but fell off again and it's been bad ever since. Or bad compared to the 90s and early 00s.

I have several theories and beliefs. And I think it is a combination of all of it.

1. More hunters each year. Hunting started getting cool when social media came out, I think Facebook and stuff got started in 06 or so. You tube shortly after. And we continue to get more turkey hunters. And I think it is not necessarily a good thing, especially someone as passionate and yet somewhat selfish about them as I am. I'm all for folks hunting and killing gobblers. But try to put back in what you can, and don't be unethical with it. Or don't kill just to say you killed it.

2. Decoys and methods have made it easier. Decoys became popular right on time with the sudden sharp decline. I think most people didn't use decoys in the beginning because they were cheap and un-realistic. Illegal where I was raised in Alabama. But when social media and stuff start advertising, such as these 100$ avian x people started thinking turkey hunting was cool and it recruited more hunters that weren't about the sport, just the kill.
Shotguns have also come a long ways. Folks been using good guns and sights for a long time. But with the popularity of patterning and number chasers it got worse. I remember when you just used an 1100 with high brass magnum 6s and tried to get them within 30 yards. Now you can shoot 70 yards.

3. Loss of habitat will always be an issue. As we grow we build more houses, convert more woods into row crops. Some folks also keep their places well bush hogged and all, which is fine. But a pretty looking good of just regular grass does zero for turkey poults. Not enough people care about the resource, or are simply uneducated about it.

If I were turkey commander in chief, I'd outlaw all male turkey decoys, start season roughly two weeks later than what it is, gobblers only, and keep the bag limit at 4 or so with still a fall season. (Fall season gobblers only as well.) bag limit shouldn't matter if the hens are bred and raising broods.

Click to expand...

woodsman04 said:

I like this data. I'm a numbers guy. Love it.

If you look at 09 jakes and 10 adults, you can see that 08 would have had a great hatch.

I would put an asterisk beside 20 and maybe 21 due to Covid inflating the kill numbers. I'm sure without Covid we'd killed in the low 30s, and probably 2022 would be better. But Covid hurt I think.

I cannot speak for the entire state.

But I keep very good records on what I see and hear, not just hunting but driving down the road since my work consist of me driving a lot each day. And this ain't Highway miles, it's 100-120 miles daily on country back roads. From 06-07 the turkeys basically disappeared in most all Lawrence and southern Giles. Lincoln and Wayne also fell off, but not like Lawrence did. Or southern Giles. For Giles county Highway 64 might as well be Trump's border wall, because south of it there are basically no birds.
I do believe they made a slight comeback in 2010, but fell off again and it's been bad ever since. Or bad compared to the 90s and early 00s.

I have several theories and beliefs. And I think it is a combination of all of it.

1. More hunters each year. Hunting started getting cool when social media came out, I think Facebook and stuff got started in 06 or so. You tube shortly after. And we continue to get more turkey hunters. And I think it is not necessarily a good thing, especially someone as passionate and yet somewhat selfish about them as I am. I'm all for folks hunting and killing gobblers. But try to put back in what you can, and don't be unethical with it. Or don't kill just to say you killed it.

2. Decoys and methods have made it easier. Decoys became popular right on time with the sudden sharp decline. I think most people didn't use decoys in the beginning because they were cheap and un-realistic. Illegal where I was raised in Alabama. But when social media and stuff start advertising, such as these 100$ avian x people started thinking turkey hunting was cool and it recruited more hunters that weren't about the sport, just the kill.
Shotguns have also come a long ways. Folks been using good guns and sights for a long time. But with the popularity of patterning and number chasers it got worse. I remember when you just used an 1100 with high brass magnum 6s and tried to get them within 30 yards. Now you can shoot 70 yards.

3. Loss of habitat will always be an issue. As we grow we build more houses, convert more woods into row crops. Some folks also keep their places well bush hogged and all, which is fine. But a pretty looking good of just regular grass does zero for turkey poults. Not enough people care about the resource, or are simply uneducated about it.

If I were turkey commander in chief, I'd outlaw all male turkey decoys, start season roughly two weeks later than what it is, gobblers only, and keep the bag limit at 4 or so with still a fall season. (Fall season gobblers only as well.) bag limit shouldn't matter if the hens are bred and raising broods.

Click to expand...

There are a few south of 64 in Giles.Had this property for about 10 years. Population seems stable to me around here except for there being more gobblers than usual the last few years.I dont mind the 3 bird limit. Get rid of fanning and decoys. Good way to see who are turkey hunters.

poorhunter said:

I have lots of friends that have property and don't hunt! I've taken them or their boys to hunt, but none have really taken to it so I have pretty much free reign.

Click to expand...

wow, i am new here so don't have any friends with farms. how do i build up friendships like this? thanks!

Speedwell-Hunter said:

wow, i am new here so don't have any friends with farms. how do i build up friendships like this? thanks!

Click to expand...

Love Jesus more than anything else, including your wife or turkey hunting.

Setterman said:

I am starting to think that pushing the season opener back might be the best compromise. No way the decoy crowd will give up their crutch and lowering limits is not really going to move the needle IMO. Start it mid April and maybe Even cut off hunting at noon.

Click to expand...

Agree 100% on the lowering the limits as you stated. To me if you just automatically go in and lower the limits you aren't going to see that much of a change, plus you will NEVER get that limit to go back to what it was once changed. So many things to try before even think about lowering the limits but for some reason lots of people just jump on that and want it lowered before thinking about anything else. Before lowering limits I would try a lot of things like making trapping legal year round in hopes it will get more people to help out the turkey population, look at cutting out fall season, stopping hunting at noon, 1 pm or some time during the afternoon, stop the controlled burns this time of year, and making bearded hens illegal to kill. Trying some things like that will help it overall more than lowering limits.

Setterman said:

I am starting to think that pushing the season opener back might be the best compromise. No way the decoy crowd will give up their crutch and lowering limits is not really going to move the needle IMO. Start it mid April and maybe Even cut off hunting at noon.

Click to expand...

I don't know I think most folks would rather have the opportunity to just go hunting even with no decoy...