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Man how times have changed

just a question though, would it be downhill as opposed to that time or is NOW a more normal/common population for your area? if it is more common then it wouldnt really be "down" just down from a time of more then usual population.

I agree i wish the population in the spots I hunt where that of 8-10 years ago, they were EXPLODING with birds for whatever reason over that time period. Now it seems they are back to a normal population percentage which is fine as i still find ways to scratch a few kills out each year but man it was nice when finding 20-30 longbeards every morning lol. the problem then was always trying to decide WHICH one to go after HA
 
Prior to the population explosion we actually had very few birds according to all the old time hunters. I just came of age and began hunting in the midst of the good times so I cant give my perspective prior to that. The birds pretty much centered around the release sites. I happened to be lucky enough to hunt one of the farms that was a release site and we were ate up with birds. We would hear a good dozen every morning, be on birds all the time and see several gobblers each day. Last year we saw and heard one gobbler on that entire 500 acre farm. It was the same for all the surrounding farms which I also hunt. One of the differences Ive noticed now is that birds are scattered more throughout the county instead of being centered on certain areas, they just arent that thick except in areas where alot of land is under one owner or just a few owners and they only allow alittle bit of hunting and dont go killing 4 per person per year. I just really miss the old days of hearing all those birds. I made my place sort of a mecca for turkeys, and have several gobblers every year now, but that also attracted a jake slaying poacher last year, so Im down this year on gobbling birds. During the good times, alot fewer folks turkey hunted here than do now, so due to the spreading out of turkeys, and the increase in hunters, our harvest has actually remained relatively stable for the county as a whole. There just fewer birds with more hunters after them. Then you have the issue of "he who has the most corn poured will have the turkeys" in these big woods environments. It just all adds up to being a down time for alot of us. But yes I still do manage to get my 4 every year, I just spread it out over 2-3 counties.
 
i gotcha man, yeah ever since those high population days i will get my 4 but like you i spread it out over a few different areas/counties just to try and maintain a good population for the next year.
 
I would pay good money to have the population we had 10 years ago back i would say our pop. is like it was in the 70s? maybe?
 
I didn't grow up hunting them as my family didn't. I got interested in college after seeing them while deer hunting and killed my first the following spring (93 I think). Since then it has become my favorite animal to hunt. Hope the population stays up and continues to grow.
 
If we would have had turkeys to hunt when I was younger, I would have hunted them from the time I was old enough to walk. We did not have any birds until I was about 15 in the area of Maury County in which I lived. I remember the first turkey I ever saw and thinking," What the heck is that comming my way?" That was about 15 years ago. Now we have a lot of birds in the area.
 
I am just wondering if the 4 bird limit has added to the decrease in birds. How long has TN had a the 4 bird limit?? I remmber when it was 3 and we had plenty of birds in Stewart Co. but I lost the place to hunt.
 
Roost 1 said:
I am just wondering if the 4 bird limit has added to the decrease in birds. How long has TN had a the 4 bird limit?? I remmber when it was 3 and we had plenty of birds in Stewart Co. but I lost the place to hunt.
Click to expand...

The philosophy for the limit on turkeys is similar to buck limits. A small percentage of turkey hunters actually kill 4 birds every year. I don't know the actual percentage of TN hunters who do. Does anyone else?

The point being that game and fish populations are meant to be utilized (harvested). So, if we don't have to be more restrictive why would we?

It's the same thing with jakes being legal. Most hunters voluntarily pass on jakes. Why restrict those who just want a bird to eat from killing jakes?

I'm with REN. What most notice as a decline is actually a shift from a rapidly expanding population to a stable population. You see the same thing with farm ponds. A farm pond is often its most productive the first five years after stocking before the fish numbers and size stabilize.
 
A buddy and I were recently talking about what a blessing it was to learn how to hunt during the "Glory Days" 15-20 years ago. Even while making every mistake in the book (over and over again sometimes) it usually wasn't a big deal to get on another bird pretty quick and we still killed turkeys in spite of ourselves.

I've had the opportunity to hunts in lots of states over the years (MO, IL, NC, SC, GA, MS) so have the benefit of comparison. While it certainly might not be as good as it once was, it sure ain't bad.

Thanks for posting the link REN...good little read.
 
WMAn said:
Roost 1 said:
I am just wondering if the 4 bird limit has added to the decrease in birds. How long has TN had a the 4 bird limit?? I remmber when it was 3 and we had plenty of birds in Stewart Co. but I lost the place to hunt.
Click to expand...

The philosophy for the limit on turkeys is similar to buck limits. A small percentage of turkey hunters actually kill 4 birds every year. I don't know the actual percentage of TN hunters who do. Does anyone else?

The point being that game and fish populations are meant to be utilized (harvested). So, if we don't have to be more restrictive why would we?

It's the same thing with jakes being legal. Most hunters voluntarily pass on jakes. Why restrict those who just want a bird to eat from killing jakes?

I'm with REN. What most notice as a decline is actually a shift from a rapidly expanding population to a stable population. You see the same thing with farm ponds. A farm pond is often its most productive the first five years after stocking before the fish numbers and size stabilize.
Click to expand...

Im not knockin yall because it probably is like that in some places but not here we went from having a expanding population to Literally almost none. There are bigger factors in play in some areas. I do not believe that a 4 bird limit has affected them in any way, nor do i think fall hunts have affected them in this extreme manner.
 

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