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Rally the TWRA to allow coyote hunting at night with THERMAL to save the TURKEY population

Hunters shoot hogs around here at night all the time. Im one of them. I can tell the difference between a possum and a coon at 250 yds through my scope which is way out of my range at night anyway. I can't see what the difference is in shooting something during the day through a scope. Ive not seen the evidence that supports it being any more dangerous than shooting one in the daytime. Lots of states have it and there's no sky falling. We have it here at night with rifles but its just for hogs.
 
I thought coon hunting was rifles. That explains it. So maybe start with yotes at night with shotgun only. I doubt anyone is worried about fur damage. I've predator hunted with shotgun, bow etc. for the challenge.
 
Nite hunting yotes......another prime example of encouraging the use of cans. No one needs a 30cal for yotes, they could put a caliber restriction in the regs for nite time predator hunting. I'm all for it though I'll probably never participate. Yotes are just another hole in the bucket. You'll never remove them all but taking the cream off the top helps.
 
scn said:
Ranchers out west have battled coyotes for decades with everything from poison, set guns, trapping, and 24/7 hunting. The decades of data has shown that hunting, including night hunting, isn't effective in controlling a coyote population.

If you want to lobby for it because you want the fun of doing it, fine. Just don't think you are going to make a difference in the coyote population.

I see more cons in it than pros, but, really don't care.

Until we get an agency and commission that cares more about the turkey population than they do license $$$$$, the population will continue circling the bowel.
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I agree,I enjoy coyote hunting but it's not effective at reducing the population,I just do it because it's fun.Trapping is much more effective.in reducing the coyote population.Coyotes are not even close to a bobcat when it comes to predation on turkeys,plus a turkey is not safe from a bobcat even at night on the roost!Nest predation is the #1 reason the turkeys are going away but I also believe there is some kind of disease spreading thru the turkeys!
 
Wrangler95 said:
Nest predation is the #1 reason the turkeys are going away . . . . .
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I don't think that is necessarily the case.
I'm seeing too many successful hatchings, hens initially with 8 or 10 baby chicks, then a month later, 2 or 3 or 4 or none at all.

Coyotes get some of these chicks, maybe more baby chicks than the bobcats.
But the hawks & owls may be putting all the dogs & cats to shame,
at least with the poults.
 
I remember in the 60's of rarely seeing a hawk, rabbits and quail were every where we rabbit hunted, no idea how much the recovery of the owls and hawks affected the other critters they eat, I know owls will hit a human head 2 times in about 1 hour and not sure how big of a critter they will attack, hawks I have seen with cats and rabbits , I would suspect they would take out juvenile turkeys without a problem but no idea on a grown bird
 
mike243 said:
I remember in the 60's of rarely seeing a hawk, rabbits and quail were every where we rabbit hunted . . . . . .
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I believe there are still plenty of rabbits, but they have changed their behavior a bit in large part because of raptor predation. Rabbits are not as "visible" as they once were.

There were also major behavior changes in bobwhite quail over the decades (in West & Western MIddle TN) where I and my family before me hunted them. The behavioral changes in quail may have been as much or more the result of human and other predators hunting them as from hawks & owls.

Eventually, the quail have become almost extinct in these same areas they were once super-abundant. But I believe the rabbits are doing ok. Interestingly, the habits of human hunters also greatly changed over the past few decades. In my youth, the single most hunted species was squirrel, and more people hunted quail then than now hunt turkey. Rabbit hunting was probably the most popular thing to hunt after squirrel. Quail was probably the 3rd most hunted game in the 1960's and into the 70's.
 
TheLBLman said:
I don't think that is necessarily the case.
I'm seeing too many successful hatchings, hens initially with 8 or 10 baby chicks, then a month later, 2 or 3 or 4 or none at all.

Coyotes get some of these chicks, maybe more baby chicks than the bobcats.
But the hawks & owls may be putting all the dogs & cats to shame,
at least with the poults.
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Im never in other Tennessee counties but my home county of Clay,so I dont really know about hens being successful at hatching poults in other counties but I live on a farm out in the country and after the farmers have cut the hayfields I ride these backroads on my UTV every evening and you will hardly ever see a chick with a hen so I know most of the eggs never got to hatch.You are correct about the hawks and owls catching poults,turkeys have the odds sure stacked against them!
 
Ky has released a report that the Turkey harvest was the lowest its been in 12 years, twra running the show up there too lmao
 
They are cutting hay all around my home now, hate to think how many get mowed every year
 
mike243 said:
They are cutting hay all around my home now, hate to think how many get mowed every year
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Nothing that hasn't been done this time of year for decades, before, during, and after
we've had robust turkey populations around these same hayfields?

If anything, many people are actually more aware now, and killing fewer turkeys and fawns via hay cutting?
 
I would hazard a guess that there are more acres of hay now than there every has been, less woods more fields and more homes
 
TheLBLman said:
I believe there are still plenty of rabbits, but they have changed their behavior a bit in large part because of raptor predation. Rabbits are not as "visible" as they once were.
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Tell that to my buddies that run beagles. If there is a rabbit anywhere they could smell him. There's very few rabbits compared to when they hunted them in the 90s
 

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