Setterman,
I see your point, and I am tracking the overall premise as well, but these are the latest numbers I get through yesterday (day 26 of statewide, but including all earlier hunts (Chuck Swan), statewide juvenile, and all WMAs):
2017- 29,162 to this point (84% of checked in turkeys last year during spring season)
2018- 21,852 to this point
That is a 28% difference from one year to the next, and not in the direction us hunters want to see it go.
If you take the 21,852 as of yesterday, and divide it by 84%, which is 0.84, you will see that we are tracking a final number of approximately 25,963 birds checked in. That number may increase somewhat, but I seriously doubt it will get anywhere near 30,000.
If we do not break the 30,000 mark for the spring season, it will be the first time since 2001 when we checked in 28,041. To put that in perspective, back then, statewide poults per hen ratios were consistently "4" from 1998-2002, and populations were exploding across much of the state. The 28,041 check in number for 2001 was a 6,000 bird increase from 2000 season when we checked in 22,145.
For A LOT of the state, especially middle Tennessee, those were the days turkey hunters dream of. You could literally mess up a turkey or two in the morning, and still have another option, or two, on a lot of farms, and on some public ground. That may not be realistic to expect, or sustain over time, but it is the days us turkey hunters dream of.
