2013 Harvest Comparison

As land managers, we need to make the habitat more suitable for turkeys, specifically nesting. I know I sound like the people off of mossy oak or nwtf, but it is true. To have good turkey habitat, you need a little bit of every kind of habitat imaginable on your property. Hardwoods for eating acorns in and roosting. Pines/cedars for roosting and nexting. Pine/cedar thickets for nesting. Recular grown up blackberry bush thickets for nesting. Food plots with clovers for spring/summer feeding for adult birds. Short cut food plots or cattle grazed pasture for poults to catch insects in. Cut lanes through thickets so that poults can catch the grass hoppers at an early age. FAll food plots with grains such as millet or corn for turkeys to eat. Chufa should be planted. Sow weat down for a fall crop, turkeys also eat the seeds and the sprouts. Plenty of mast producing, hard and soft. Also, a good property should have a good water source.
 
woodsman87 said:
As land managers, we need to make the habitat more suitable for turkeys, specifically nesting.
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You beat me to it; this is where I'm staking my claim. I've been blessed to have a place I can do all the things you mention above and am confident that over the longterm can make it right for the critters.

In the grand scheme of things a year or 3 is a blip on the radar and I can't control things like the weather dictating a bad hatch here and there. For my part, I'm focusing on things I can control like habitat and predators. I hope the picture that seems to be emerging isn't becoming a trend. For you guys that have watched this slide for years...I know it must be frustrating.
 
Boll Weevil said:
woodsman87 said:
As land managers, we need to make the habitat more suitable for turkeys, specifically nesting.
Click to expand...
You beat me to it; this is where I'm staking my claim. I've been blessed to have a place I can do all the things you mention above and am confident that over the longterm can make it right for the critters.

In the grand scheme of things a year or 3 is a blip on the radar and I can't control things like the weather dictating a bad hatch here and there. For my part, I'm focusing on things I can control like habitat and predators. I hope the picture that seems to be emerging isn't becoming a trend. For you guys that have watched this slide for years...I know it must be frustrating.
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It is frustrating, and it is 100% true about decline in my places. I am glad that you are taking part in being a land manager. I wish more people, including myself, could do a little better.

Also another thing to add, it would help if we all started trappipng the nest getting critters such as skunks, coons, possums, and the awlful armidillos. We need to eradicate every feral hog on the planet. We need to somehow kill every fireant on the continent. Controlling coyotes is a must, but not so much that varmints such as coons and possums rise in population.
 
I am lucky enough with my work, I get to hunt a lot. I start my season in North MS, move to TN, then get to hunt AR. I had a great season, but it was more luck than anything. Heres what I have seen the past few years...
West TN- I hunt land in Shelby, Fayette, and McNairy counties. It has all gone down hill since around 2005. The properties I hunt, do not get over hunted. I am a believer in taking a bird off the property and letting it be. The birds just aren't there like they used to.

Mid TN- Giles and Lincoln Counties... The hunting this year was pretty good, but still not near hearing the numbers of birds I usually do. It seemed the best year we had was 2010. Seems numbers still decreasing.

North MS- In General, again a decrease in birds. Farms where 4-5 are usually hanging around, were quiet for the most part.

East AR- On MS River, Zone 17... VERY TOUGH. But I blame that on many years of bad nesting as a result of the MS River flooding.

Overall, I agree on several things. I think we do need more suitable nesting habitat. The Hay cutting, bush hogging, really hurts them. I urge landowners to really set aside areas for nesting. I also agree in the Unit Idea, I would like to see a West Unit, a Middle Unit, and a Eastern Unit. I also believe the 4 bird limit it a little much. I would much rather see it at 3 or even 2 for a couple years. Of course, it is up to the hunter on how many he/she takes, even with a 4 bird limit. But then again, if you have a 2 or 3 bird limit, your still going to have hunters who take way over there limit. I have personally seen this in MS... I have many friends that I stay in contact with during the season and it seems to me the areas with booming populations in extreme Northeast MS, South Central MS, and central KY. My love for the Wild Turkey is not describable with words. I would love to see possibly shorter seasons, and state limits reduced to help protect our flocks.
 
woodsman87 said:
As land managers, we need to make the habitat more suitable for turkeys, specifically nesting. I know I sound like the people off of mossy oak or nwtf, but it is true. To have good turkey habitat, you need a little bit of every kind of habitat imaginable on your property. Hardwoods for eating acorns in and roosting. Pines/cedars for roosting and nexting. Pine/cedar thickets for nesting. Recular grown up blackberry bush thickets for nesting. Food plots with clovers for spring/summer feeding for adult birds. Short cut food plots or cattle grazed pasture for poults to catch insects in. Cut lanes through thickets so that poults can catch the grass hoppers at an early age. FAll food plots with grains such as millet or corn for turkeys to eat. Chufa should be planted. Sow weat down for a fall crop, turkeys also eat the seeds and the sprouts. Plenty of mast producing, hard and soft. Also, a good property should have a good water source.
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:) Completely agree...
 
wwa7 said:
woodsman87 said:
As land managers, we need to make the habitat more suitable for turkeys, specifically nesting. I know I sound like the people off of mossy oak or nwtf, but it is true. To have good turkey habitat, you need a little bit of every kind of habitat imaginable on your property. Hardwoods for eating acorns in and roosting. Pines/cedars for roosting and nexting. Pine/cedar thickets for nesting. Recular grown up blackberry bush thickets for nesting. Food plots with clovers for spring/summer feeding for adult birds. Short cut food plots or cattle grazed pasture for poults to catch insects in. Cut lanes through thickets so that poults can catch the grass hoppers at an early age. FAll food plots with grains such as millet or corn for turkeys to eat. Chufa should be planted. Sow weat down for a fall crop, turkeys also eat the seeds and the sprouts. Plenty of mast producing, hard and soft. Also, a good property should have a good water source.
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:) Completely agree...
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We sound almost like the same person. I do not get to hunt as much as I like, but I do hunt alot in south and central AL, alot in north AL, but mostly in Giles and Lincoldn TN, because this is where I live.
I cannot explain my love for the wild turkey in words just like you. I have noticed that there is a problem, looks to be the whole southeast U.S., with a declining turkey population.

I said earlier that I blame it almost fully on poor hatching. And it could be several reasons. We cannot control weather, but we can control management practices such as creating more suitbale nesting habitit, trying not to cut hay or bushhog during late spring, conrol varmints and hogs.
 
People that hunt the mid-state, specifically Maury county, are very lucky. I just looked at there this years harvest to date and it was over 1,000.

My home county of Giles has declinded over 200 birds since 2006.

I cant say it enough, something is wrong. Do not know if it is out of our control or not.
 
After first 8 days this year we were over 5000 birds behind last year but have been slowly gaining ground since then. Last year was unseasonably warm and the birds were broken up good early with gobblers strung out everywhere. This year it was close to the 10th before birds were broken up good. History shows the first 2 weekends are when the largest quantity of birds go down, usually.
 
I hunt west as well as middle Tn. We have a dairy farm leased in Dickson county, and usually have tons of birds. We have seen fewer birds in Dickson county this yr. than the last ten. Locals say they are not seeing any anywhere, and the check station we go to in Dickson says they are way down on birds tagged. Same way here in Madison county. Something seems to be going on, not sure what. TWRA does a great job, but I have always felt our limit was to high, as well as our season to long. Look at Missouri, they have a two bird limit, three wk. season, and stop at 1 pm daily, and have a higher harvest then we do, and a larger population of birds. Three would be plenty, or even two for me.
 
I have been complaining for the five years you have muddyboots. I still believe a lower harvest limit would not have a great effect. It is all about habitit management, and hen mortality. We cannot control weather, but we can improve habitat and keep hen killing minimal during fall and don't bushog until August.

Good hatches is the key.
 
Limit should be lowered for sure, I know too many people that will hunt a farm to death in early season and kill 5-8 toms off it. The next year, they may kill the same or slightly less...third year they complain about not having any good hunting....no sense in trying to explain logic to them. You got a family of three or four that turky hunts and they all want to limit out...thats a lot of birds!

Years when birds split up early seem to be better for my areas, but late season (May) tends to be the worse hunting during those years for obvious reasons. Im fortunate to have a decent flock on our farm during early season, we limit the harvest to 1 or 2 toms out of prob 10, what happens to them when they break up is out of my control. I do this because we are not selfish for one, and two we are optimistic some will survive and make their way back.
 
Sounds like limits aren't the problem if too many people are hunting the same farm. Maybe the hunters and landowners need to set their own limits. Even with a 2 bird limit you could have 5 guys potentially kill 10 birds off a 100 acre farm for example. I know of one farm in chapel hill that doesn't have many hunters and has tons of acres and is covered in birds. I killed 4 turkeys (tagged out) this year and last spring. Three last spring were public and all four this year were public. I'm not the best hunter, we just have good turkey hunting here. I also killed 6 birds on public last fall. That's on land shared with a lot of other hunters. In counties with low turkey populations maybe the limit should be lowered, like the deer hunting units, but where the population of turkey is booming, I like the generous 4 bird limit and it ain't hurting the hunting here.
 
I didn't see anyone mention that the numbers may be down due to the new check in procedures.

Also, I don't think that lowering the limit would make much of a difference. According to the TWRA website, as of today only 2,261 hunters have killed more than 2 birds. The total turkey population of the state is estimated to be around 300,000, so by lowering the limit to 2 birds, we would have saved the lives of less than 1% of the population.
 
catman529 said:
Maybe the hunters and landowners need to set their own limits.
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Nailed it (I assume you meant within the law of course). Honestly, I'm not necessarily opposed to the limits or season length so much as I am in favor of we hunters accepting our role in managing the resource. My greatest concern as that we keep bangin'away simply because "The State says I can kill 4" and all the while the population slowly slides downhill. Some regions can't sustain a 4-bird limit while others could probably sustain twice that.

There certainly appears to be places where the population has declined be it due to poor hatches, predators, disease, dramatic changes in habitat, or other factors. The real eye-opener for me when I reviewed the data over time (vs just a year or 2) and over a broader region is that it doesn't appear isolated. I don't know what constitutes a "trend" and when we should be alarmed but it certainly got my attention.
 
Scud said:
I didn't see anyone mention that the numbers may be down due to the new check in procedures.

Also, I don't think that lowering the limit would make much of a difference. According to the TWRA website, as of today only 2,261 hunters have killed more than 2 birds. The total turkey population of the state is estimated to be around 300,000, so by lowering the limit to 2 birds, we would have saved the lives of less than 1% of the population.
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Ive been saying this all along. Decreasing the bag limit will only have minimal effect, hardly even noticable
Its all about hatches and habitat.
 
#1 WE NEED UNITS! Maury County can stand 4 bird limits. West TN cannot. It's foolhardy to manage a state as diverse in habitat as TN like it's one farm.

#2 The top turkey biologists in the world did not get that way by being fools! They are not wrong: Hens should not be killed, EVER! Especially 6 in a day!

I have no problem with a 4 bird limit or the long season IF it's done by units or counties. This hunter management stuff is bull. There are guys all over this state bloodthirsty enough to shoot off the limb, kill hens, etc. You think they are going to quit hunting after 2 birds just because the farm doesn't need any more killed? Heck no!
 
Boll Weevil said:
catman529 said:
Maybe the hunters and landowners need to set their own limits.
Click to expand...
Nailed it
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Nope. If you own the farm and only family hunts it, maybe. In a club,lease, or public land (how most of us hunt) no one is going to quit hunting while others are still hunting. Helll, most clubs can't agree on guest rules. Much less voluntarily lowering the limit.
 
Spurhunter said:
If you own the farm and only family hunts it, maybe.
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Since I own my own place...this is the context in which I was speaking. Dad, brother, and I can make a mutual decision and stick with it. Clubs, leases, and public land are a whole different discussion.
 

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