This stinks

Hduke86 said:
I don't mind the later season start. They could start it July 4th and I'd be out there in 100 degree weather with the snake,ticks, and bees. I'm chasing them whenever season starts regardless. What I would have liked to have happened….

1. Very limited out of state tags
2. Out of state tags be only available the last two weeks of season.
3. Out of state tags limited to one bird.
4. No decoys of any kind on PUBLIC lands.
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1 and 2 wont ever happen, just way to much money lost. If you end up doing that then resident license cost will SKYROCKET to offset it.

I could however see TN doing something similar to MS just did, by turning WMA's for NR to draw applications so they can control how many are on each ground.
 
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REN said:
1 and 2 wont ever happen, just way to much money lost. If you end up doing that then resident license cost will SKYROCKET to offset it.

I could however see TN doing something similar to MS just did, by turkeying WMA for NR to draw applications so they can control how many are on each ground.
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Do they have info out that shows how many out of state tags are bought for the spring? I'd be interested in knowing how bad we get flooded with nonresident tags.
 
Hduke86 said:
Do they have info out that shows how many out of state tags are bought for the spring? I'd be interested in knowing how bad we get flooded with nonresident tags.
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Not really just due to how TN hunting licenses are structured. However with the changes coming July first, where you have to buy species specific license vs weapon specific license you can start to get some data around it. You could go by purchase date and harvest data but that doesnt really tell you if they are turkey hunters or just buying your their license in the spring every year like most people do. Harvest numbers you can see today but that only tells you ones that were successful, not total number of actual hunters.
 
This will be my 38th season turkey hunting in TN. I'm a little more avid than most, and typically hunt the entire season, from juvie until it closes.

The BEST hunting (for a traditional turkey hunter) behavior wise for calling in a bird to you was always April 10-14. The most gobbling, the most lonely mid morning gobblers that love to commit suicide. It was so much better than last week of March, that when I moved to MS, I skipped the opener and came up for a week Apr 10th.... Did that for over a decade. around 06-07, so many folks had started turkey hunting and the population had begun to decline that there just weren't many toms left to hunt by April 14th. I hated to do it, but I moved my week of vacation to coincide with the opener late March to be able to get on gobbling birds.

With the opener delay to mid April, it's awesome again... several hens breaking off to lay, lonely gobblers mid morning, barely enough green in the woods to manuver a bit, and gobblers more evenly distributed on the landscape.

I agree with others in this thread, it almost makes it too easy to hunt them. But just too many birds were getting massacred too early (prob many with fanning/ reaping). Remember, we have always killed 2/3 of the gobblers out in just the first 9 days of season year after year, regardless of when season opens.
 
mwbenelli1996 said:
I mean has anybody ever found significant evidence of a disease? I've honestly never found a turkey carcass and I've definitely never seen one just fall over dead
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Yes. I've dispatched multiple sick turkey and sent them off for testing. Summer of 2020 we sent off three from one WMA and had another on camera. All three had avian pox, one had blackhead. That summer our hatch was as poor as i'd ever seen. 2022 was our worst harvest on this WMA in a long time. It wasn't coincidence disease ran through and our numbers suffered. Dispatched a sick gobbler last December. Surprised he was still alive. Was able to get within 20 yards of him. He tested positive for Avian Pox. Sick turkey aren't going to last long in the wild. They will be killed and predated pretty quickly. You have to spend a lot of time in the woods and around turkey to see the sick ones.
 
Jbird22 said:
Yeah, it's very weird that state agencies want to make the word "disease" off limits when it comes to turkeys, but with deer it's a normal talking point. A very similar situation happened here in my area of South MS during the mid 2010's. We went from having a decent amount of turkeys (gobbler, hens, and jakes) to almost nothing in a few years. Yes, dead turkeys were found and turned in here. The drop off was very noticeable to anyone who spent any time in the woods. I was told by someone with the state that it was definitely disease. That was pretty much the end of it and hasn't been brought up since. Around 10 years later and the rebound is much slower than any of us hoped it would be. I feel your pain for sure!
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Yup, pretty sure disease ran through south MS in early 2010s. I moved down there in late 2013 and it was night and day difference in the turkey population then compared to a couple years before. I talked to a lot of knowledgeable hunters who know turkey and there is no doubt in my mind disease played a role.

I think the rebound has been so slow because the populations got so low and a lot of that habitat down there is not conducive to producing lots of turkey.
 
tellico4x4 said:
I'm in Wayne County & have 4-5 years of late start behind us as in original study area. This will be my 23rd year having this property & every year since the delay, has been better than previous since it started.

We've always had lots of clover plots, did habitat improvement, trapped & controlled the amount of gobblers killed each year. The only thing that has changed has been the delay. During the slump before delay, I could usually hear 3-5 different birds at daylight. Now, 8-10 is not unusual at all. Looking forward to in the morning with grandson.
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Not quite those numbers of birds, but I can say the same for my area in MS just across the state line. Just an hour drive from Wayne. 2022 we were at a low. It was rough. Each year has progressively gotten better. Went from hearing maybe a bird at daylight to none by the end of April in 2022. This year I'm hearing multiple birds most mornings, and have heard as many as five.

And we still have a March 15 opener with more turkey hunters than ever before and they are dying at a faster rate now days.
 
I love TN's delayed opener because it benefits me as a non-resident hunter (resident of MS). I get my birds in MS, start hunting in Bama, then move up to TN and get to hunt a 3rd opening day with birds begging to die.
 
th88 said:
I love TN's delayed opener because it benefits me as a non-resident hunter (resident of MS). I get my birds in MS, start hunting in Bama, then move up to TN and get to hunt a 3rd opening day with birds begging to die.
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Exactly! People think it helps with nonresidents, I ran into more guys from South of us last year that told me this same story than ever before.
 
Woodsman10 said:
I like that they tried something. I hope I did not misunderstand and this is not word for word. but preliminary data has so far said that the early start date vs late start date was no change. (From Craig Harper)
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Craig Harper may have said that. I think the preliminary data actually said something different.
 
deerfever said:
Exactly! People think it helps with nonresidents, I ran into more guys from South of us last year that told me this same story than ever before.
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I mean it does help depending how you look at it lol. Prior to the change it was invaders from up North and only a few from the south. Now it pretty much only from the south
 
Hduke86 said:
Sure do and it takes years for the most part and the tags are expensive. I have no problem paying to play out west when it comes to a limited resource.
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Understand, as I do too and have for a lot longer than most have been alive. But, relative to your suggestions would you still be willing to pay the expensive license fees IF you could only hunt the last two weeks of any season?

I think it's a pipe dream that NR's are the issue in any states animal decline, just an easy target to kick. It's the states lack of management, period.

Sorry to get off track with thread.
 
Woodsman10 said:
can't say what I want to…..

I like that they tried something. I hope I did not misunderstand and this is not word for word. but preliminary data has so far said that the early start date vs late start date was no change. (From Craig Harper)
I applaud the agency's so much for attempting something.

This is not scientific fact… but I bet if they outlawed fans and strutter decoys (I'm
willing to make compromise and keep hen decoys) that there would be nearly 50% less gobblers killed, especially opening weekend.

May be coincidental, but I think population started declining the most when Primos come out with the "B-Mobile" and shortly after the Avian-X duck guys infiltrated turkey hunting. From then it just steadily got more and more decoy crutch users killing more cow pasture gobblers. Sometimes doubling with their buddies so that can get on Facebook YouTube, and MySpace.

We need less turkey hunters. The only people I recruit to Turkey hunting is ones that I think will take it seriously and cherish it like myself. That is very few.
I wish everyone would quit turkey hunting and begin crappie fishing and golfing. Then stick to deer and duck in the fall and winter.
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You know my opinion and I agree 10000000%. Things went south when killing turkeys became stupidly easy for field hunters. Thousands of birds die by the hands of people who otherwise would get blanked.
 
From a biological standpoint the later start date has to help with reproduction. Same theory as Iowa and not allowing gun hunting during the rut. Clearly this topic is similar to our politics, people pick and choose which satisfies their personal interests!
 
tellico4x4 said:
Understand, as I do too and have for a lot longer than most have been alive. But, relative to your suggestions would you still be willing to pay the expensive license fees IF you could only hunt the last two weeks of any season?

I think it's a pipe dream that NR's are the issue in any states animal decline, just an easy target to kick. It's the states lack of management, period.

Sorry to get off track with thread.
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I completely get what you're saying and the stance of it. To answer your question about "last two weeks". Me personally I would simply for the reason that i enjoy the adventures more than the killing. I know some folks are not like that and everyone finds enjoyment differently. I also know folks have limited time and mobility/health and can't pursue like someone my age can.
My "gripe" against out of state I guess is from "YouTube" and social media platforms that promote promote promote nothing but the kill and move along to the next location. I'm glad the bag limit was reduced and that raccoon trapping is all year long to help. Now if we can just tweak night hunting of coyotes some I'll consider it a win.

Now back to the regular scheduled topic lol
 


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