Final Spring Kill Numbers

[Bone Collector]

If you wanna see laughable check out the TN turkey hunters Facebook page and read what those guys are saying. Crazy!!

I can't take part in the "discussion" over there anymore on the subject. Some folks still have very strong turkey flocks and they are not going to listen to anyone say the limit should be lowered, or the season should start later.

I tried to say lower the limit to 3 and got questioned on it and to be honest, at first I didn't have any answers, so I back pedaled a bit. After thinking about it, though, if everyone agrees, that nests are being raided at high rates, and some hens are not even nesting, then why would you continue to shoot 4 male birds when without them, there are no breeders. My after thought was if you have 10 toms, and shoot 4, and no poults are produced and you shoot 4 more the next season, and no poults are produced, then you aren't getting 4 in season 3 and when you shoot the last 2 (assuming they have survived), you're effectively done. Lowering the limit at least allows an extra bird or two to live, and then maybe we get the right conditions and some poults are born and we start to see the birds bounce back some.

These guys can't get past the fact that male birds don't lay eggs and therefore (ITO) are "not that important" in the breeding process, and will argue that if you lower it to 2 or 3, when the "good hunters" get done, they will take others to kill more birds, so it won't save any.

 

[Bone Collector]

It's laughable that people think 600 hens across an entire state the size of tn is the problem

I haven't seen anyone say that killing 600 hens is "the" problem. But it ***** sure isn't helping the problem. Killing hens out of a declining population is counter-productive. That can't be disputed. So why allow it?

I am also certain there are several hundred more hens killed and lost every year by bow hunters who shoot hens just because they are legal during archery season. Protecting hens would save more than just the 600-700 reported.

Don't forget the jack legs that shoot them illegally and the idiots that shoot them on public land and either breast them out or leave them laying, so they don't get caught.

One guy on the TN turkey Hutners page was openly admitting he shoots a hen or two when he feels that the population is out of balance on his place and since it is private land, it is of no concern to anyone else.....

 

[RS]

Sitting here biching isn't going to do any good.

This.

For the most part I stayed out of the 2018 round of "declining population" discussions simply because I've grown tired of repeating the same thing for several years. I'm of the opinion that while the State has a role in this equation so do hunters and land managers.

I too have pretty much stayed out of the discussions for the reasons you mentioned. I am one of the lucky ones that have not seen a decline on any of the farms I hunt. I just had a hard time continuing to read the same posts over and over from the same individuals complaining that the population has crashed, but continue to kill multiple birds each year. The "get em now while the gettings good" or "I hunt multiple farms" excuse doesn't hold water if you truly believe the population has crashed (or you just don't care and want to continue killing multiple birds). I agree that something has happened in parts of the state, and I'm all for a reduced season and bag limit to see if that will help.

 

[AT Hiker]

If you wanna see laughable check out the TN turkey hunters Facebook page and read what those guys are saying. Crazy!!

Explain this one to me, it's someone response to another's remake that if what happened in Lawrence county happened to his county.

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[woodsman04]

If you wanna see laughable check out the TN turkey hunters Facebook page and read what those guys are saying. Crazy!!

Explain this one to me, it's someone response to another's remake that if what happened in Lawrence county happened to his county.

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He sounds like all he's worried about is killing all he can kill. It may be our jobs to help create habitat, but what he is saying sounds like he just wants to expel the resource everywhere he goes and let other people fix it.


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[TN hunter]

If you wanna see laughable check out the TN turkey hunters Facebook page and read what those guys are saying. Crazy!!

Explain this one to me, it's someone response to another's remake that if what happened in Lawrence county happened to his county.

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He sounds like all he's worried about is killing all he can kill. It may be our jobs to help create habitat, but what he is saying sounds like he just wants to expel the resource everywhere he goes and let other people fix it.


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That's exactly what is happening now!! They just go to someone else's land that may have some birds. And he and his buddies/ families kills every one they can. Then move on to the next place.


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[Parahunter]

I recently started 2 posts on Tennessee Turkey Hunters on FB about the season change for or against not great on the comments like you say. I just sent my comments to Commisioners Cox, King, and Swan.
We'll see what happens . I commented that I support a change to the season. Start date of 2 weeks later and adding the rest of May on the end and lowering limit to 2 birds. I also attached my supporting documentation for the Mean Initiation Nest Incubation date. I also stated this would be a proactive response to the overall decline in turkey populations. Also pointed out that lowering the limit will only effect 12% of the successful hunters.

 

[AT Hiker]

I seen that and I'm glad you cited your source, just more fuel for the debate against the naysayers.

Thank you


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[megalomaniac]

lol, the naysayers cannot be convinced by science. They watch the gobblers breed the hens in January, set eggs in March and poults are everywhere by mid April in their eyes

 

[megalomaniac]

OFC, it does matter where the nests were sampled in TN... there is a HUGE variation across the state of mean initiation time, and therefore mean incubation start. Again, on my farms in middle TN having sampled many nests, average nest initiation starts April 10-14th, and average nest incubation starts April 24-28th.

 

[Setterman]

OFC, it does matter where the nests were sampled in TN... there is a HUGE variation across the state of mean initiation time, and therefore mean incubation start. Again, on my farms in middle TN having sampled many nests, average nest initiation starts April 10-14th, and average nest incubation starts April 24-28th.

In the mountains where I hunt it starts the first week of May and incubation begins about now,

 

[Andy S.]

OFC, it does matter where the nests were sampled in TN... there is a HUGE variation across the state .......

Ditto!

 

[Parahunter]

I was just told to get my science out of here on that page! What a bunch of dopes!

 

[Parahunter]

I wouldn't call 4 days difference a HUGE variation remember the May 2 date is the MEAN of initiation of incubation of the entire state. I did not post the entire paper. It does say that elevation does play some role as well. In higher elevations in the South turkeys will nest later then turkeys in lower elevations at the same latitude. But not by weeks or anything like that.

 

[AT Hiker]

I'm out of the loop, seriously. I had to google OFC...I've been trying to figure out what meg was meaning until the all knowing google told me; "Used as an abbreviation in messaging of "Of Course".




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[AT Hiker]

I wouldn't call 4 days difference a HUGE variation remember the May 2 date is the MEAN of initiation of incubation of the entire state.

Which falls pretty well in line with the South East average nest initiation of April 9-22. Give them 14 days to lay the clutch and hits that May 2 date pretty well.

FYI, that Facebook comment was a joke.


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[Roost 1]

I was just told to get my science out of here on that page! What a bunch of dopes!

He was being sarcastic because "the crew" on that page don't listen to facts backed by science.

 

[ruger7mag]

I was just told to get my science out of here on that page! What a bunch of dopes!

Haha that person was joking with you and he may or may not be on this forum

Roost beat me to it.

 

[FARMTOFIELD]

One of the same turkey masters on the Facebook page was professing to all the people about how wild Turkey's have never had a white gene so color phase birds were nothing more than farm pets or descendants of farm pets. I questioned his statements, and him and a few of his minions, attempted to make a fool of me, when I said that domestic birds came from select breeding of wild birds through history. I was told that domestic Turkey's came from other continents, and when I provided facts about how Turkey's were and are only native to north America and the oscellated in South America, every last one of them stopped commenting, they can't stand to losr

 

[FARMTOFIELD]

He always proclaims, "all of his biologist friends"