If you have the opportunity why wouldn't you lol. I agree I wish they hadn't extended the season to end of May. A month season is plenty long
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Big changes from the meeting today
- Thread starter ruger7mag
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Not a fan of Turkey hunting, but I feel this is a personal government over reach. If that bird is on my land I should be able to kill it for my dinner table. Will they ban shooting 70 lbs doe next or make you wait on a 100 lbs doe ?? State land I live with my property not in agreement!
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
That's exactly why turkeys are in decline... the biologists were taught incorrect information back then and because of that misinformation, they grossly mismanaged the resource for 3 decades. Fortunately for the turkeys, there wasn't enough hunting or predator pressure on them that they could still thrive despite the mismanagement. But that is no longer the case. More hunters causing unnatural mortality and more predators who have adapted to effectively killing predators has led to an incredible increase in natural mortality.
Heck, back in the 90s, biologists thought natural loss of adults to predators was basically zero except for a few hens lost during setting.
Now it's taken 6 years of studying them with radio collars to figure out what I told them 2 decades ago... season is opening before the majority of hens have been bred, and mortality from predators even on adult birds is much higher than previously thought. TWRA/ UT has not released the results of that 6yr study. But the results will be what I just listed. Sometimes you can understand an animal, it's behaviors, and it's biology better living with it for decades better than those than reading about them in a classroom.
It's all fun and games till your woods are slient on a perfect spring morning. And if things continue everyone soon will be experiencing a silent spring.
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
You can kill all you want with a depredation permit if you farm.
Otherwise, the animals on YOUR land are not YOURS. They belong to the citizens of the state, even if you are managing and feeding them. If you want to kill every male on your place, you can still do it legally... just have to take your family members or friends to do all the killing except for your 2.
Or you can contact one of the outfitters in the state and let them bring clients and I bet they would be happy to pay you $250 per bird they kill. You can buy a lot of domestic turkey for $250. The going rate to landowners in south FL is $1000 per bird. While I don't expect Easterns to bring that anytime soon, I wouldn't expect $500 per bird to be out of the question in a few more years in TN.
Totally. Back 6-7 years ago I was listening to the guys from Lawrence complaining about how the turkeys disappeared, and I admittedly was both skeptical of that possibility, and thinking it could never happen where I live. I mean I had turkeys all over the place. Then they virtually disappeared overnight, and I was hearing a few gobbles a season instead of 10-15 different birds a day. Even to the point that I basically quit hunting turkeys for two years. Silent woods are no way to hunt turkeys. There's a lot of guys in here that seem to have the same thinking I did seven years ago. They have plenty of birds and think things are always going to be that way.
Sasquatch Boogie Outdoors
Well-Known Member
And I bet you couldnt taste the difference.I shot a Jake once by accident and I'm not ashamed either. I watched a strutting longbeard disappear behind a white oak tree and emerge a strutting Jake. I waited about pulling the trigger until he got past that tree. Until this day I swear that longbeard pushed that Jake out in front of meAnyway it does happen.
Sasquatch Boogie Outdoors
Well-Known Member
Soooooo, are you saying g that the science can change??? Hehehehe I couldnt help my self.
Boll Weevil
Well-Known Member
Turkeys? Is this true?
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
Yup, we used to think leeching and bleeding people let out the bad humors to cure disease. Even taught in medical schools back in the day.
The biggest mistake is assuming what is taught in school (in science, history, English, etc) is the infallible truth.
There is only one Truth which is infallible. I naturally question everything else.
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
Yup, gotta show damage (crop planting time is easiest). But usually TWRA convinces the landowner to allow them to trap and relocate (often to TX) instead of killing them.
Science doesn't change because the Creator of science doesn't change. Our understanding of that creation changes as we research and learn about it.
The one thing the two week delay may help with is the overabundance of non resident hunters . I have absolutely zero against people hunting out of state but with everyone else around opening later last year was way too crowded on public here in TN. A quota or something had to be done but this will take away the crowd looking for an early start. The thing I do not understand about the delay is this and If I had been present and not at work I would have went forward and ask the whole commission so they could explain it to me. So we pay for a study to see if a two week delay makes a difference and it's one year away from being over and the data presented( maybe they already know the results possibly?). In the past when talk of delaying the season came up , the point was always made that we don't even know if it helps until the study is complete, wait on the study? I guess my point is this if we were not going to wait on the data to prove one way or another why did we even engage in the study and pay for it? Why not just move the season back 3 years ago and be done with it? Another question would have been why lower the limit ,( not that I mind)? All I have heard from people wanting to move the season back is if we move it back the limit can be 3 or more it will not matter because all the hens will be bred and all will be good? Have I misunderstood that part of the theory? Again my son and I only killed 3 between us this season so no worries. Do not misunderstand me , I am fine with what they did but this seems to go against everything that we have been told in years past. I certainly don't think anything they did will hurt the turkeys . Personally I wish they had went with the first recommendation to move it one week , a two bird limit and then just end the season like it always has. That way you give the turkeys another week ,satisfy most people and simply just take a week away instead of hunting til June when it's 90. I will be out there if it's 100 if I am not done but would have been fine with a week shorter season. I may be way off but I hope all this with turkeys in certain areas of our state is a cycle and they will bounce back in places that have suffered. Arkansas should be loaded with turkey as they are on year 4 or 5 of the later Open date and two bird limit, or did I read they went to 1 bird? I may be wrong on the amount of years, Maybe someone could chime in from Arkansas or maybe I will just ask one of them the next time is see them in TN or whatever state I am in. Lol, I hope what they did does help and makes the turkey population explode for all of us. It's still expanding in some places I hunt so it should hopefully just make it even better . Did they ban reaping on public land or not? I couldn't find that part of the meeting. One thing I didn't think about with a two bird limit if a man has a late quota hunt and wants to go he better save a bird for the hunt if he kills one early since there are no more bonus birds in TN.
Why would they send them to Texas? Put them in some of these counties that are having major declines!
I understand what your saying and You can do what you want with your property but the game belongs to all of us!!
KPH
Well-Known Member
Got to measure the beards first
TN turkey biologist should of consulted with KY first turkey biologist, George Wright. His telemetry study in the early 90s proved otherwise to everything you mentioned.
He concludes that great horned owls killed more birds than all the fall bow hunters combined. His research is the reason KY season never opens before the Saturday closest to April 15th to ensure the majority of hens are bred. Sounds to me like TN didn't have a real turkey biologist back then, just as KY doesn't have one now.
At the end of the day, it's all about revenue.
This is the only reason TN season is staying in til May 28. It will be the last southern state open. The baiters will tear them up the last 2 weekends when these gobblers group back up and get on the feeding pattern.
Baiting might not be the #1 issue of the decline but it's definitely at the top. These guys today don't even try to hide it in their you tube videos. It's ridiculous and no one is doing anything about it. No telling how much corn or birdseed will be put out 1st or 2nd week of May and then hunted after the "10 day" rule…..
I never thought about the baiting issue with the season being open so late. Although I guess if they were going to bait anyway they could be killing them like that now.
fairchaser
Well-Known Member
Like most hunters, I only see this from my own personal experience. I've generally thought that management decisions should be made slowly and after careful study. Otherwise you don't know the effect of any particular decision. This seems heavy handed and sort of knee jerky by the state.
We pay $1500 to hunt turkeys at Ames. By May 1, it's over with. In West TN turkeys get started in late March before the season opens and the strut lasts about two weeks. Depending on the weather, it could all be done by the time the new opening date. Essentially, it cuts our season in half and cuts the limit as well. I've never killed 3 turkeys in one season but I like to bring a guest and Ames follows the state for its limits. Thus, the club limit will likely now be two, not 3. One for me and one for a guest. That makes the cost of a turkey pretty high. Other alternatives start to look more attractive. For me it's a deal killer.
Maybe it's the right decision for our turkey population and the future for our kids but for me at 65, I may have killed my last turkey. At Ames anyway.
We pay $1500 to hunt turkeys at Ames. By May 1, it's over with. In West TN turkeys get started in late March before the season opens and the strut lasts about two weeks. Depending on the weather, it could all be done by the time the new opening date. Essentially, it cuts our season in half and cuts the limit as well. I've never killed 3 turkeys in one season but I like to bring a guest and Ames follows the state for its limits. Thus, the club limit will likely now be two, not 3. One for me and one for a guest. That makes the cost of a turkey pretty high. Other alternatives start to look more attractive. For me it's a deal killer.
Maybe it's the right decision for our turkey population and the future for our kids but for me at 65, I may have killed my last turkey. At Ames anyway.
