Yes and yes
This stinks
- Thread starter knightrider
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And also you should listen to "The Turkey Hunter Podcast" with Cameron weddington and Andy Gagliano (could be off with Andy's last name) they had Harper and another biologist on. Was very informative
Wooden Arrow
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i've boned out turkeys while camping in 'bama and laid the carcass on a stump on a food plot before dark, by dawn, there was nothing left but scattered feathers. protein just lying around for the taking goes quick.
Wooden Arrow
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myself, i liked the early season opener. i really liked it still being chilly at dawn. sound seems to carry better under those conditions IMHO. cool air kept most bugs at bay for a while, too. hate warm/hot weather, ticks, chiggers, and mosquitoes... and sweating, 'bout left that one out.
Woodsman10
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I hate the heat too. But goodness folks….
What y'all do in summer and early fall? Sit in the house and play games?
Being from the south I just deal with it. I don't really let it alter what I want to do.
It traditionally would have opened like last weekend, and it's been in the mid 80s, humid, windy, north and west of my area has been hammered with storms.
What y'all do in summer and early fall? Sit in the house and play games?
Being from the south I just deal with it. I don't really let it alter what I want to do.
It traditionally would have opened like last weekend, and it's been in the mid 80s, humid, windy, north and west of my area has been hammered with storms.
Haha I'm a FL kid. I for sure ain't in long sleeves, pants, boots and a hat in summer walking with 15lbs in my back
Absolutely hunter numbers & license sales are down. It's been a point of interest to recruit more hunters, particularly younger ones to the lifestyle. As they continue to drop, hunter's voices will have less and less political pull and license prices will have to increase or wildlife budgets will be cut. Keep having the "if you don't like it go somewhere else or don't hunt attitude" and if enough folks take your advice, hunting will be negatively affected.
Weather is a huge factor. Big difference going to the blind in the dark in the upper 30's versus the low 70's. Factor in ticks, mosquitoes, copperheads, and rattlesnakes. I personally know several die-hard old timers who got bit by the wrong tick and will not go into the woods when the temps are that high.
I own and lease private land. I don't want to drive hours to hunt public land with a kid. Also, trying to get more kids involved in the sport without them having to choose between hunting, sports, or church activities. We have a different opinion on the weather and ideal temperature.
From a scientific study perspective, how will they determine what effect the later season has? You have to have a study group and a control group. We've heard a few anecdotal comments on here but it makes sense you will hear more turkeys when the season is not open. Doesn't mean the population is better or future hatch will be improved. Tennessee is over 400 miles long with diverse terrain and populations, what's good biology in one region is not going to work everywhere.
From this thread it appears many non resident hunters benefit from the new rule. They can hunt and limit out in their home state and then buy nonresident licenses and do the same here. And that may be the benefit TWRA was after. $$$
But the previous season benefited NR hunters even more Bama and Ms could still do the same they do now but KY and most all states north and surrounding here would come here first because it opened before their state. Now it opens the same as a lot of them so you don't have that rush coming south/east/west of here just mostly from the south.
Again those guys were already coming up here either way as they were hunting 15 days before we were.
deerhunter10
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There were snakes out 2 weeks ago. @BSK got bit in January or February. If you're scared of snaked turkey hunting isnt for you. Ticks are an issue when they aren't picked off. Check yourself and spray your clothing. I got Ticks off of me during deer season.
We don't have a voice hardly now look no further then the politicians pushing the bait bill through now.
If the season starting late effects you take and introducing kids that's all on you Noone else. 14 days is the difference we aren't talking about months.
States are open go there. Doesn't mean you don't have to hunt here. That's a choice.
The opportunity is the same as i said above with 2 less birds. All your points are personal preferences not legitimate points.
I also don't think hunter numbers are down. I would venture to say covid added more hunters then ever before. Don't know that license numbers how are they calculated? Are lifetimes included every year. I know all of the kids in my family have their lifetime.
Great points. Theirs pretty much no way license sales are down. Organizations such as NWTF and twra trying to recruit new hunters has nothing to do with license sales being down and everything to do with them lining their pockets
FARMTOFIELD
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Same situation here buddy, 2006 we had numerous gobblers, hens, Jake's. I'm talking hundreds. 2007 rolled around, we had 8 turkeys. And it dipped down to nothing from there. At most our flock would have 10 birds on an up year before it went to nothing again. This is 3 counties wide as well.It was definitely disease here from the end of turkey season 22 to spring of 23. We left 31 adult gobblers and over 40 jakes that we knowingly counted the week after season of 22 on 4 different farms. Come spring of 23 nothing and i mean for miles and miles, nothing, not a hen, jake, gobbler, these birds didnt disperse they died! It wasnt coyotes,coons, bobcats, or people, it was disease and twra will not hear of it, we are just crazy there hasnt been any disease. We do have a few jakes and hens coming back in those areas and those farms are of limit until a good sustainable population is back, im very lucky and thankful to have picked up a couple places in other areas that still have some birds.
In the last 4 years, the counties to our east and west have rebounded and are thriving. We are still behind but our numbers have absolutely come up big time in the last 4 years. We have a decent flock.
Something else that changed 5 years ago, besides the delay, that they ain't talking about.
(at least in my area) 5 years ago, they have to spray chicken litter with some pesticide that kills some kind of beetle that supposedly transmits blackhead, before it ever leaves the barn.
Southern Sportsman
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Great, then maybe you can explain something to me. No one else has been able to.
In Harper's big study, they delayed the season in three counties, and left it the same in two "control counties." In the three counties with the delay, the nest success rate (i.e., the percentage of nests that successfully hatch at least one poult) increased >20%. In the two neighboring control counties, nest success decreased approximately 5%.
So, in a research project studying the effects of a 2-week season delay on wild turkey reproductive metrics, they found that after delaying start dates, documented nest success increased. During the same study period, neighboring counties with no delay saw a decrease in nest success rates.
Can you help me understand how this data is compatible with any claim that delaying seasons had "no effect?"
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So it helped in some counties and not others?
Woodsman10
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15 p
Quit shooting all them Jakes and shoot a 20 pound gobbler hahaha
Kidding.
Eastern/mid Alabama here. I'm just used to hunting in heat.
I like some of the Sitka stuff as I've seen you talk about, but the chief reason I ain't going to buy their top of the line warm clothes is because there is a very high possibility that I would not use it an entire deer season.
15 pounds!?!? LolHaha I'm a FL kid. I for sure ain't in long sleeves, pants, boots and a hat in summer walking with 15lbs in my back
Quit shooting all them Jakes and shoot a 20 pound gobbler hahaha
Kidding.
Eastern/mid Alabama here. I'm just used to hunting in heat.
I like some of the Sitka stuff as I've seen you talk about, but the chief reason I ain't going to buy their top of the line warm clothes is because there is a very high possibility that I would not use it an entire deer season.
I meant gun, vest and water not turkeys lol.
85 and humid in full turkey gear with no wind is HOT to this fella. 95 and humid with shorts and T-shirt I'm a happy camper
. Guess I'm just weird like that
Southern Sportsman
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It helped in all 3 treatment counties. Simultaneously, things got worse in 2 neighboring counties where the season was not delayed.
megalomaniac
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nest success increased in counties by 20% in counties with the delayed opening. Nest success decreased by 5% in the control counties that had the traditional opening over the study.
I don't think that's correct. As others have said that info didn't come directly from Harper's study
