Actually talking to and emailing commissioners.You haven't even been a member of tndeer for a month. What's considered a long time?
Just having some fun. Have a good afternoon.
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TheLBLman
Well-Known Member
And before it was 4, it had been 2 for many years.
What I remember most about the past times of a 2-bird limit in TN
was a lot more gobbling.
Willysman
Well-Known Member
Yeah when I started in 1977 the limit was 2 then they raised it to 4. The reason for more gobbling with a 2 bird limit was there was more gobblers to gobble, less hunting pressure and no coyotes. The foxes, bobcats and other predators have always been around. They have adapted to hunting pressure and predation. O for the good old days.
Of course two weeks that give people more opportunity that work and have hectic schedules a couple more chances to hunt is ridiculous! I will never understand people advocating for less opportunities when it means nothing to the over all harvest, maybe another 1-2 %
Well, you know what they say about opinions.
Sure do thats why i quoted yours
You can have the last word. Best of luck to you.
cowhunter71
Well-Known Member
God willing, looking at a good long Turkey Season here in Tn. this year, both Fall and Spring. Going to make it nice having those 2 weeks at the end. Ain't going to be any need to travel anywhere, which is always a good thing, especially during these times
Uncle Jesse
Well-Known Member
They can't do away with killing bearded hens. Not everybody knows the difference. The beard is what makes the bird legal as in something that can be seen and identified by anyone no matter how much experience they have
Be a surprising amount of birds checked in last week of May I'm betting lolGod willing, looking at a good long Turkey Season here in Tn. this year, both Fall and Spring. Going to make it nice having those 2 weeks at the end. Ain't going to be any need to travel anywhere, which is always a good thing, especially during these times
MickThompson
Well-Known Member
If they can make regulations that define a legal Tom from an illegal jake, they can for sure define the difference between male and female turkeys, even if we can't figure it out for our own species.
Willysman
Well-Known Member
Sure going to miss seeing the winter woods come alive next spring. More to turkey hunting than killing a turkey.
You guys say what ever you want. Our population , in Tn., Missouri, Alabama, Georgia hasent fell just because of fanning, season dates. I have hunted since the mid seventies. Many on this site know me, lve taken many gobblers, many states. Before many of your where hunting. I had a dairy farm in Dickson county leased for years. Would hear 20 a morning gobbling. Had a wintering group of 300 plus stay every fall. Could see stutters in every pasture in spring. All this vanished in one year. All of parts of Tn., and other states mentioned. This was not hunter pressure. Nor predators. The number of gobbling birds wasnt lost to them becoming smarter. Not in one season. something happened. And years later, still down. Something caused a massive loss in a large area. I feel it had to be some type disease to affect such areas all at once. I dont agree with fanning. Decoys, l could care less. I will say, l always thought our limits was too high, and season too long.
peytoncreekhunter
Well-Known Member
Completely agree with the above. I don't fan, I don't use decoys and I don't over kill. But the population of the birds (Tom's and hens) plummeted in one season. 2011 season is when my birds just disappeared. I wondered if the 2010 flood had something to do with it but most of the property I hunt (and the adjacent property) was above the flood plain.
Curious as to the season year that others noticed a difference in their bird population.
I noticed the dramatic population decline overnight in the winter 2016/spring 2017 I think it was. Was watching the usual huge winter flocks with over 100 hens/poults and 30-50 bird flocks of Toms while deer hunting fall of 2016, and the birds had all but disappeared by spring season. I too blame it on disease, most likely aflatoxin, and then blame the early and long season for the inability of the population to recover.
TheLBLman
Well-Known Member
It's possible that on a statewide basis, that 2010 flooding destroyed more turkey nests than any before or since in most of our lifetimes.
While many areas of TN are indeed above wherever any these high water levels reached, there is another "issue" I've not seen previously mentioned, as to how lower turkey populations in one area can lead to higher turkey predation in other areas.
We often talk of "nest raiders" (like raccoons, dogs, coyotes, possums, etc.), and we talk of the variety of predators that inflict their toll on even adult turkeys, but especially younger turkeys and poults. I assure you a 1-yr-old turkey is not nearly as weary against predation as a 2-yr old turkey.
One observation I have is the increasing predation by raptors, most specifically a variety of hawks, but also bald eagles. But UNLIKE all the other predators, these "raptors" easily fly from county to county, and are additionally migratory.
Fewer birds on the south side of the county? They start hunting more on the north side, or in the next adjoining county. Never mind these "resident" raptors don't include the migratory ones that "hunt" and kill as they pass through.
What I'm suggesting is that raptor predation becomes greatest in which ever locations turkeys are most numerous. And, sudden declines in turkey populations (such as per disease or aflatoxin poisoning) may be shifting raptors' hunting territories more on a macro than micro scale.
Everything is effecting everything, all seemingly synergizing the decline of the turkey, which has been similarly preceded by the decline of the bobwhite quail. It's my theory that the little Cooper's hawks evolved into very efficient killers of bobwhite quail. But when the quail were gone, they turned their attention more to turkey poults.
What one type of bird seems to have had a population explosion during this same time period our quail have gone nearly extinct and turkeys seem to be declining most in areas they were once most abundant?
Hawks and Eagles?
We probably should include crows in the list of bird predators, as there has recently become more evidence they destroy lots of nests, and also "hunt" over wide areas, which they can easily move.
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
For me it wasn't a 1 year collapse, but a steady and progressive decline over 5 years that started the year after TWRA took 60 hens and 15 jakes from a neighboring farm. That was 2001 or 2002 or so. By the late 2000s, that 1000 ac farm had gone from 30 toms using it every spring down to around 1 or 2. Past 5 years, it's fluctuated from zero toms to as many as 5 in a year.
Boys, Im telling you. it happened bout 2011. There isnt enough predators anywhere to take this many birds in one fall to next spring in a county that had the population Dickson county had. My brother lives there, manages a propane company all over the county. Drives all over the county. Had to keep em ran out of his garden. Not anymore. He can tell you first hand, like I do. They vanished in just a few months. Now, sees very few.
2012 was an amazing year. That was the year of the really early greenup. Birds were suicidal and everyone I know had really good seasons.
