megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
I'm sure they will push for legalizing electronic calls to attach to the remote controlled decoy.Gobbler88":gr7nrt0t said:
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woodsman04
Well-Known Member
megalomaniac":3mbeb40a said:
No. It will be a Trojan horse kind of deal. Put an explosive inside a remote control decoy, drive it into a late winter/early spring flock of 3 longbeards, 5 jakes, and 8 hens. Then KABOOM!
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Setterman
Well-Known Member
Honestly, what next is twra legalizing more than 1 bird per day. It's been in the works for years and I've got no doubt the brain trust will decide now is the time. The crutch users will eat it up
These are the only things that I think are on par with male decoys, especially strutters early season:
1. Legalizing multiple birds per day
2. Legalizing baiting
3. Legalizing rifles
4. TSS (when used in conjunction with male strutters and field hunting)
For the record, I handload TSS for my 20G because I love carrying a lightweight compact shotgun to the woods. If I could develop TSS that evaporated after 50 yards, I would; to reduce the amount of turkey sniping.
My biggest concern is protecting the resource (turkeys) STATEWIDE for years to come, so our grand kids can enjoy them too.
1. Legalizing multiple birds per day
2. Legalizing baiting
3. Legalizing rifles
4. TSS (when used in conjunction with male strutters and field hunting)
For the record, I handload TSS for my 20G because I love carrying a lightweight compact shotgun to the woods. If I could develop TSS that evaporated after 50 yards, I would; to reduce the amount of turkey sniping.
My biggest concern is protecting the resource (turkeys) STATEWIDE for years to come, so our grand kids can enjoy them too.
TheLBLman
Well-Known Member
Same here.Andy S.":2io8826a said:
To add to what I believe has been happening over the past many years . . . . . . .
For many years I believe the TWRA turkey managers were putting too much emphasis on checked-in harvest numbers as an indicator of turkey populations. The old assumption was that if the "harvest" was up, we had more turkeys; if the harvest was down, we had fewer. At the same time, population fluctuations were viewed to be more dependent on factors other than hunter kills.
Now we find that annual hunter harvests (of male birds, particularly the 3-yr-old & older ones) may have a much bigger impact on populations than previously thought. The effect is even worse when most of the birds are killed before mid-April.
We also see the folly of not picking up on that hunters may have been killing a progressively higher percentage of each year's available male birds, thus via the old "harvest population models", the old management experts could proclaim all is well, since we're killing about the same number of birds each year.
Never mind we have been killing a higher percentage of the resource each year as the population has been dwindling?
At the same time, the checked-in harvest numbers may have become less accurate in terms of how many birds hunters are actually causing to die.
IMO, there has been a huge increase in long-range sniping, along with a huge increase in wounded (non-recovered, not checked in) birds that later die from their wounds. All it takes for a bird to die is a single pellet in its gut, and typically, the hunter might assume a total miss as he watched that bird fly away.
Think about this:
Then energy required for a single pellet to penetrate a bird's intestinal lining is much less than what is required to penetrate a bird's skull, and much, much less than what is required to break a wing or leg bone.
Many of those birds fired upon at 75 to 100 yards by the facebook crowds are taking pellets to their guts, yet running & flying away as the shooter may be thinking he did no harm, but more likely not thinking and not caring.
Now seeing what appears to be dramatic drops in turkey harvests over the past couple years,
maybe even the old harvest models will instruct the turkey managers to now make some dramatic reg changes?
But by all appearances, they may be way behind the curve, and whatever will be too little, too late.
Setterman
Well-Known Member
Dramatic changes are mandatory now.
For guys like me who easily tag 4 we need to be restricted to two birds
One Jake, I would say none but you need a whoops tag or for newbies
No hens, ever
Outlaw decoys
Delay opener by two weeks
No more juvi season. We've seen the evidence this year and last years abuse by adults
Everyone takes a hit to what they like for the betterment of the population
For guys like me who easily tag 4 we need to be restricted to two birds
One Jake, I would say none but you need a whoops tag or for newbies
No hens, ever
Outlaw decoys
Delay opener by two weeks
No more juvi season. We've seen the evidence this year and last years abuse by adults
Everyone takes a hit to what they like for the betterment of the population
Pretty sure a strutter decoy that is already mounted on an RC vehicle have been available for a couple years now.
This mobile decoy is old news, I've seen them for sale at least 2 years ago. I saw this stuff on FB yesterday and was just blown away by it all. It's getting so crazy.
It's time for TWRA to make changes to the rules. I've seen numerous people posting they've killed 3 or 4 birds already. How can you kill that many in the first week of season. I would love to be out hunting, but the 60 acre patch I can hunt only has 5 hens, 7 jakes and 1 gobbler. So I've chosen not to hunt him just so he can breed and hope make some new ones for years to come.
It's time for TWRA to make changes to the rules. I've seen numerous people posting they've killed 3 or 4 birds already. How can you kill that many in the first week of season. I would love to be out hunting, but the 60 acre patch I can hunt only has 5 hens, 7 jakes and 1 gobbler. So I've chosen not to hunt him just so he can breed and hope make some new ones for years to come.
Mike Belt
Well-Known Member
Sometimes the only time a change comes is if it directly affects those responsible for making those changes.
PickettSFHunter
Well-Known Member
Turkey "hunting" has become a complete joke. It's embarrassing.
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The commissioners aren't having a problem killing turkeys.Mike Belt":i3o33e12 said:
I actually think it's a good thing that we do have commissioners that turkey hunt. I'd hope they've been doing it long enough to realize that there is a problem and it needs addressing.
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TheLBLman
Well-Known Member
Actually, it's at least 2 years past time for some dramatic changes with the turkey regs.Shooter77":2lok6lk0 said:
Simply KILLING turkeys CAN BE EXTREMELY EASY!Shooter77":2lok6lk0 said:
Go afield every day the first week.
Focus on shooting & killing rather than traditional hunting,
while using all the latest crutches,
such as long-range "rifle-like-patterning" shotguns, electronically controlled decoys, reaping fans, pop-up blinds, real-time cellular trail cam images letting you know exactly which places to go stalk, etc.
I'm not advocating eliminating all these "crutches", but just pointing out how much easier it is today to simply kill a turkey compared to a couple decades ago, especially when more hunters valued "playing the game" of calling up a turkey before killing a turkey.
Although it's wise on your behalf to have some early-season restraint there,Shooter77":2lok6lk0 said:
the reality is, typically, 60 acres represents only a tiny portion of the springtime breeding range of an adult gobbler.
Typically, ANY hunting around your perimeter is going to kill that particular gobbler, as he's likely already roaming more like 600 acres unless there are some significant barriers to his travels.
A week before the season opened, I could show you several areas of long-term decent turkey populations, talking blocks of hundreds of acres, completely void of any turkey. SHOULD be some in most those areas now with wintering flock dispersals from surrounding areas, but question remains, how many now? It's looking like fewer than last year.
Going back a few years, we've been trending towards less successful nesting, less successful poult survival, and it's been getting progressively worse with more and more going against sustaining the turkey populations we had. Beyond a decade ago, I never thought there would be bald eagles taking out some strutting Toms, never thought so many turkey hunters would be using so much longer-range guns, much less be more focused on killing turkeys by any means, rather than enjoying the traditional "run & gun" method of calling up turkeys and "playing that game".
Is what it is, and seems everything is going against even sustaining the turkey populations we currently have?
Setterman
Well-Known Member
TheLBLman":2i22q0i6 said:
You're 1000% correct and rather than more hunters standing up against all the crutches and shooter mentality. We get scores of people who feel if it's legal it's cool.
I'll say it again, natural occurrences that affect populations can't really be managed. However, the tools hunters are using certainly can and that's where this needs to start. I'm fully convinced the issues we are facing are a result of harvest exploitation by tools that make it overly simple to kill the dominant birds
This is exactly why I follow ZERO hunting groups on Fakebook.Setterman":iz4u4rmk said:
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TheLBLman":3ujc662q said:
I totally agree, they should have changed the rules before now. They should at least move season back 1-2 weeks, cut it down to 4 weeks and cut the limit to 2.
Yes killing is easy! tagging out in 1 week took a lot of breading birds out of the woods.
Yes I know these birds move around, but this is a City bird between 2 large manufacturing companies and a large interstate. He would have to move on 4-5 miles to get another patch of woods to live in. I will probably let my son hunt him in the coming weeks. We had lot more birds in the years past. just glad to see one.
You guys must have much better hunting grounds than I. We used to have turkeys... and now we just simply don't. My daughters first year hunting and I have my strutting jake out. You guys can poke fun all you want. A 6 year old with a 410 means I need that bird inside 25 yards and I haven't been inside 500 yet. Call me any names you want, at this rate I'm in no danger of wiping out the turkey population I guarantee you that.
Another topic, but the three farms I have access to I don't believe hunting has even been a big enough factor to even be worth mentioning. No one around me hunts turkeys and I've killed 3 over the last 10 years. I've watched the flocks get smaller and smaller every year and I entirely believe it is a result of predation. Seeing a hen with more than 2 12+ week old poults is like seeing a winning lottery ticket around here
Another topic, but the three farms I have access to I don't believe hunting has even been a big enough factor to even be worth mentioning. No one around me hunts turkeys and I've killed 3 over the last 10 years. I've watched the flocks get smaller and smaller every year and I entirely believe it is a result of predation. Seeing a hen with more than 2 12+ week old poults is like seeing a winning lottery ticket around here
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
If harvest numbers are correct, forget moving back season 2 weeks, dropping limits, and outlawing decoys...season needs to be closed in many parts of the state and we need to go backwards to the 80s and start trapping and relocating birds for re-restoration. Sorry to sound harsh, but this is the biggest failure by a state game agency in modern times.
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Setterman
Well-Known Member
I agree, if this trend does continue until the end we will end around 14,000 birds. At that point I'm really not sure what you domegalomaniac":15yg9jny said:
