Fall seasons gone for some counties?

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woodsman87

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What is this talk about the fall seasons being closed in Wayne, Lawrence, and Giles county? I read about it on another website. Haven't heard anything about it here yet. Good deal if true.

May not help much, but it should help some, as long as conservationist continue to improve their habitat for wild turkeys.

found this in the TWRA thread. https://news.tn.gov/node/12468
Now I know it is official.

In regard to turkey hunting, the 2015 spring season will continue to follow the tradition of opening on the Saturday nearest April 1. The 2015 season will start on Saturday April 4 of Easter weekend and continue for 44 consecutive days.

Conerning fall turkey hunting, the TFWC, voted in favor of the TWRA�s recommendations, to close the 2014 fall hunting seasons in Lawrence, Giles, and Wayne counties. The TWRA is currently conducting a study to determine why there has been a perceived decline in the wild turkey population in those three southern Middle Tennessee counties.
 
I'd say it has to do with the low number of birds in those counties... I'm sure Rockhound and a few others can chime in on the situation.
 
Oh I know Grizzly. I am one of those county guys and one of the guys on here that complains about it all the time.
 
Well I was thinking you were.... but without going back to some old threads to be sure, wasn't going to say much...

I guess there is something happening for them to halt the fall season for a period of time.... hope things get figured out.
 
I can't ever remember it not opening the last weekend of March. I hate to loose a weekend of hunting. Hope that removing the fall season will help y'all.
 
Spring season is no different. Still 44-45 days long or whatever. Just opens 4 or 5 days later and last 4 or 5 days later.

I am about to jump on the open the season up by about April 12 bandwagon to let them breed as much as possible before getting killed.

I wish someone would come out with some sure fire research/studies that says when most of the hens have been bred. That would tell us alot about when the season can open. If we can wait until all the hens have been bred, the gobblers are then expendable. We may be killing a large percent off before hens are bred.
 
Tennessee Lead said:
I can't ever remember it not opening the last weekend of March.
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TN spring season opens Saturday closest to April 1st which means over the course of 7 years, opening day could fall anywhere from the first few days of April (2009-2011, 2015 etc) to the last week of March (2012-2014). In essence, this year (2014) was the earliest opening date we can have (date after Jan 1) and next year the calendar will swing the other way and season will open as late (calendar date from January 1) as it can, with each successive year working its way back toward the earliest opening calendar day like this year.
 
woodsman87 said:
If we can wait until all the hens have been bred, the gobblers are then expendable. We may be killing a large percent off before hens are bred.
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I think this could have happened in some locales and there are number of states for which this very logic helps dictate their season dates. Sustainable harvest limits are in part designed to only remove the "surplus" or what can be consistently replaced in a healthy population. If they're done contributing to the next generation (that will be replaced), they're expendable.

There were times in the past that I actually wondered whether those turkey-less areas even had enough gobblers to breed any available hens. Imagine and area where the popoulation density was only 2-3 birds/ sq. mi. and a single tom (that might have covered an area larger than a sq. mi.) was removed by hunting, predation, or disease. Even if hens were protected there's no breeding stock.

I wouldn't be surprised if there's a restocking effort at some point int he future for some places.
 
There actually was a study done in KY by our first state turkey biologist. His findings were that the majority, if not most, hens are bred by mid April. This is why our season comes in on Sat closest to April 15th.
 
Nothing would make me happier then to see the fall harvest of turkeys outlawed completely. No bow killing, no fall season, no killing of them in the fall period.

Now to make it even better why not lower our limit back to 2 or 3, and limit hunters to one jake.

That would be some real progress, but I will take the fall seasons slipping into oblivion as a positive sign of things to come.
 
Setterman said:
Nothing would make me happier then to see the fall harvest of turkeys outlawed completely. No bow killing, no fall season, no killing of them in the fall period.

Now to make it even better why not lower our limit back to 2 or 3, and limit hunters to one jake.

That would be some real progress, but I will take the fall seasons slipping into oblivion as a positive sign of things to come.
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X2
 
Setterman said:
Nothing would make me happier then to see the fall harvest of turkeys outlawed completely. No bow killing, no fall season, no killing of them in the fall period.
Click to expand...
But so long as there is a fall turkey season, under the same rationale, there should be a spring deer season where at least one deer (either sex) could be killed incidentally by turkey hunters. Would make as much sense.

After all, many of those deer around in the spring are just going to die anyway. Why, there's dead deer all up and down the interstate just going to waste. Might as well have a spring deer season. And I bet most spring turkey hunters would be just as happy to have those spring deer hunters in the woods as the fall deer hunters are to see those fall turkey hunters?
 

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