• Help Support TNDeer:

To shoot or not to shoot...

pressfit

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2009
Messages
4,490
Reaction score
10
Location
Giles Co. Tn
That is the question.. believe it or not.. a gobbler and 4 hens showed up at my place the other day.. first turkeys I've seen in several months... I feel so bad about the dwindling of the population... I just can't bring myself to setup on him and shoot him... another strange thing I've noticed is the hens are with him all day long.. you know most of the time they will eat and then go sit on their nest.. but these don't...??? I see them periodically throughout the day..
 
Let him breed them then hunt him the last few days. Or don't. I have not killed for similar reasons during deer season.
 
I have a tom and 6 hens across the street from me that I can hunt, there use to be 4 toms out there every year till the past 2. I have had opportunities to go out in the morning and for sure Id have a higher then good chance to shoot him but ive passed on it the past 2 years in hopes he will keep breeding and more will show up.


although its hard cause I see him almost EVERY DAY when I drive to and from hunting in the mornings lol.
 
The hens either haven't initiated nests yet or are not hens (jennies). Either way if you take him now, you won't have any next year.

Sent from my SCH-R970X using Tapatalk
 
If I hunted him I would wait until later on when hopefully most of his hens are bred. If I truly haven't seen a turkey there in a number of years then I probably would not hunt him, especially if I had other spots to go to. But there's always a chance that another hunter could get him too.

The thing with turkeys is they move a lot, you never know how many miles he came from, and where he could end up traveling next year.

Usually in the spring time is when your chances of seeing a turkey are up, because they start moving, hens looking for nesting spots and gobblers just looking for more areas with hens.

I own a small farm in Giles county, and there are never ever turkeys on it except for months mid March through July. Partly because the southern end of Giles county in my area population densities are poor, and partly because I try to manage my land to be conducive for the spring hunting season/nesting brooding habitat. I've owned it now for 11 years, and every year we've had any where from two-four gobblers show up in mid March along with up to ten hens at one time on game camera. I usually manage to kill one or two turkeys on this farm. Sometimes two year olds and sometimes older birds. Every year, or since I started managing it right, more turkeys would be back.

I think they migrate from northern Giles county when they start splitting up after winter, and there is always a few around my area. That's why I don't feel bad about killing a few.

But manage your place how you want to, and hopefully you have enough land and time to do it without interference from other people.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
If it's the only turkeys around I sure wouldn't shoot him. Are there any jakes to take his place next year if you shoot him? And it's not uncommon for a tom to have hens all day


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
I quit actually shooting gobblers two years ago. I call them up into shooting range but dont pull the trigger because I don't enjoy eating them.
For me the joy is in the hunt not the kill.
And the best thing is I can hunt that bird again the next week.
 
Back
Top