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2019 Success Rate

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Levee Jumper

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Would any of you guys care to share how many days/hours you hunted this turkey season and how much success you happened to have? Just curious as to how your success rates compare to your personal ideas on the turkey population as a whole whole and the future season dates/limits.

For example this year I hunted 7 days and averaged 1 turkey per 12.25 hours afield. I personally feel the population as a whole has decreased in the areas in which I hunt and would like the limit reduced/season pushed back in the future.
 
I only kept up with birds worked vs birds killed. I only worked 7 birds this year. Killed 5 birds. I usually get on more than that.


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Good idea Levee.

I hunted 12 mornings in TN this year and killed 4. I may be the anomaly/outlier but have turkeys out the ying-yang on my farm...the good'ol days are right now for me.
 
Lincoln/Moore county- went four mornings, worked 2 birds. Heard birds on three of the four and only was able to play the game twice.

Lawrence county-0 gobbles but only one morning

Wayne county-0 gobbles but only 3 mornings.

Giles county- heard one gobble a handful of times third day of season, no gobbles after that. Giles is my home area.
First year I haven't killed one in Giles county in a long time. I know it says Giles is number 4-5 in kill numbers, but my area is night and day different from the northern part. If the south was at least half as good as the north I'd be happy with it. I'm not asking to limit out, in just wanting to hear a bird or two from the roost in the mornings.

Most of my hunting was in Alabama this season.

My thoughts on Tennessee population overall in my areas is average to just below average for the past ten years. If you were to look at mid 90s to 2007 you'd say it was way way down. But since 2007-2008 it seems about the same except Southern Giles not having a feather.


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I didn't keep up with it exactly but I'd say I hunted 22-24 mornings and one evening to kill 4 birds. However, all but 4-5 of those mornings I had to be at work by 8:30 so I was done hunting by around 7:15. I at least heard 1 bird every morning that I hunted, but there were quite a few mornings that I'd say I wasn't really "in the game". Overall I'd say our bird numbers were fairly normal, but it was still somewhat odd because some of the areas we hunt that are normally loaded were bare, but we had birds in spots that we've never had them before. I attributed most of that to how early the farmers sprayed all of our fields.
 
I hunted 7 days including youth day with my son. Hunted 27.5 hours w/0 gobblers seen. 1 hen seen. 0 jakes seen. Heard 2 hens and 5 gobblers on roost during season. I did have 1 bird gobble 4 times at my calls back in late April that was 200-300 yards from where i was on another property. That was the best it got for me! First time with out a TN kill since 2010. 2011-2017, I killed 2-4 birds between 4 properties. 2018 - 2 birds between 2 properties. 2019 - 0 between 3 properties.
 
I hunted around 25 days this season, morning, evening or both. I killed 4 and and was in on a few other kills, 14 to be exact. 5 different counties, public and private land. Heard at least one bird gobble every day I hunted.


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Probably hunted 20 times in south MS. None were full day hunts, most only for an hour or two. Had 11 gobblers in gun range (40 yds or closer) (some were the same birds), killed 3 and called another for my son. Male population was way up, but hens were scarce.

Hunted 7 days in TN, had 13 in gun range (again, some were likely birds I had in range more than once, but on different days) I killed 3, another 2 killed I called in for friends, and another 3 misses by friends. Just like MS, Male population was up slightly on the farms that had birds, but very few hens and the hens seemed to have left the gobblers earlier than usual. Made for some stupid easy turkey hunting, as most of the toms were not henned up.

But the lack of hens has me very nervous for the future.

I'm thinking about coming back memorial day weekend for the first cutting of hay just so I can shoot a pile of yoties working the cut fields.

I did see a slight uptick in jakes, nothing spectacular, but better than the last 2 years, and less than 25% of the averages I saw back in the late 90s and early 00s.


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I hope everyone had a good year, I had high hopes going into this year because I am currently in the retirement process from the Army but didn't have near as much time as I thought I would. Had some work obligations after the third week of the season for two weekends. Then they shut down Fort Campbell ( this is the only area I have to hunt) in the middle of April and never re-opened it for the rest of the season. It was supposed to close on the 12th just like the Tennessee season. Needless to say I ate tag sandwich LOL that is the way it goes sometimes though. But I will make it up during deer season.

I only got on two birds in the little time I was able to hunt but still enjoyed just being out in the woods. Time to catch some catfish and get prepped for deer season now. Think I am gong to buy myself a new treestand this year and pick up some odd and end items before prices start going up in September. I usually buy my deer gear during turkey season and deer gear during turkey seaon lol.
 
Hunted 11 or 12 times - mostly in the afternoon and all on WMA's. Saw a TON of hens. Called in 3 jakes for a newbie 11 year old on his first hunt for any game. He got so excited that he stood up to get a better look and scared off the birds. He learned something on that one but I think we've all done something we'd rather not admit when we started out... Once had 3 gobblers that gobbled at EVERYTHING with my 15 year old daughter but couldn't get a commitment. Great note to go out on. Sadly none for me this year. Granted haven't been turkey hunting in 10 years so can't complain too much.
 
'borohunter":2cw6auyv said:
Hunted 11 or 12 times - mostly in the afternoon and all on ****** and once on *****. Saw a TON of hens. Called in 3 jakes for a newbie 11 year old on his first hunt for any game. He got so excited that he stood up to get a better look and scared off the birds. He learned something on that one but I think we've all done something we'd rather not admit when we started out... Rest of the 9-10 times on **** got close to one gobbler. Only time at ****** had 3 gobblers that gobbled at EVERYTHING with my 15 year old daughter but couldn't get a commitment. Great note to go out on. Sadly none for me this year. Granted haven't been turkey hunting in 10 years so can't complain too much.
Click to expand...

I would advise editing your post to take out the places you were hunting.
 
My data is skewed, as many of the hunts I was solely trying to get my dad or someone else a bird, and the outcomes might have been different had I been solo.

But, I did hunt probably 90% or more of the available days, with almost all of them being in the mornings. We had very few mornings of complete silence. Had several mornings of roost gobbling only. But also had several mornings where we were "in the game" on, and sealed the deal 5 times.

It was e great season!
 
Hunted 11 times. 2 morning hunts and 9 afternoon hunts. 1 of the morning and afternoon hunts were in mid TN. Should have come out with 4 birds there but me and my buddy both killed 1 and both missed 1 each. The other 9 hunts I missed 1 bird and killed 2 birds. My best season in years by far. Not much gobbling in NW TN but the birds in middle did it right.
 
Hunted 4 times. Heard gobblers on 2 of those hunts. Had gasman in the game once and he blew it [emoji23]

Bird snuck in from bad side and was in our lap before we knew it. Small property where running and gunning was out of the question, otherwise I feel like we could have killed that morning


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I hunted most every weekend, Good Friday, the day after Easter, and Friday May 10th. I didn't hunt Mother's day this year. That equals 14 hunts. Unfortunately a lot of the first ones were in the afternoon, due to soccer games, or weather.

Most of my hunts were in Rutherford county. My land used to have a ton of birds, they have been pushed out due to current development, but it appears birds finally started moving back into my area at the end of season.

I only heard 2 birds gobble all season (I think). I worked a bird in the same area on public land on 4 different hunts. That is why i said, "I think" I believe he was the same bird, but there may have been more than one, in there. I heard gobbling on the 4 hunts. I worked him 3 times. I had him on Private land 2x in gun range, but wasn't going to be a jack wagon and act a fool. Finally got a shot on public and he busted me moving my gun, and I missed. :( Also saw 2 jakes that I could have shot, but passed.

I got one on my property second to the last weekend right off the roost. Saw another down the power line strutting last Saturday of season and had 2 jakes in on me that day as well. I passed both of them.

1 hunt in Wilson Co (Lebanon) saw 4 hens, heard what we thought was a jake gobble in the distance.
1/2 hunt N. Giles heard 0 saw 0, but on my drive out, I saw one strutting with 5-6 hens right around the corner on a cattle farm.
- Second 1/2 of this hunt concluded in Maury county. Saw 11 hens, no male birds.

Overall not a bad season, but compared to what it used to be 4-5 years ago, the #'s are down. I am glad to see 4 Jakes and did see poults last year, but not many and Jake #'s are down from what I used to see. Used to see flocks of 6-10 Jakes....
 
I don't know the numbers, but my success rate was pretty dang low. I know people who hunted the same areas I did and they called in multiple birds while I struggled to find one that would answer a call. One area in particular I hunted a bunch and did not kill a bird, but I know a guy who tagged out there this year and others who called in multiple birds. I hunt more than most people. I'm not sure if I just had a streak of bad luck or if I need to take a step back and learn a thing or two. The birds were there but I had a tough season.


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28 hunts, 9 dead birds, 3 misses, 4 blowed opportunities by moving newbies :rotf: , had a great season, next year should be even better by all the Jake's and gobblers left at end of season.
 
I hunted 6 times. 2 birds responded to calling. Missed one, shot one on the same day. After that 0 birds for the remainder of the season. Virtually 0 sign in most of the local TVA spots as well.
 

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