Trails Cameras and turkey decline

[Setterman]

I've been wondering if the trail cam craze is impacting turkey numbers. Most folks use corn to attract deer to the camera site, which also attracts turkeys, along with predators looking for an easy meal.

If it possible that this is contributing to the decline many are experiencing?

How many people seeing a decline run cameras with corn? How many seeing no decline run cameras with corn?

 

[Roost 1]

Goes right along with my theory of baiting being one of the problems leading to the decline.

 

[Setterman]

Goes right along with my theory of baiting being one of the problems leading to the decline.

There's merit to the baiting stuff, look at GA. They legalize it and the turkeys immediately start declining

 

[String Music]

They aren't declining on our property. I've seen loads of jakes this year. I've also noticed gobblers still having 2-3 hens this late in the season (saw them again this morning).

This has been a brutal year for me, but not because there isn't turkeys. Since there are loads of jakes, it stands to reason there are at least that many jennies. I believe a lot of these jennies are the ones hanging out with gobblers all day (instead of nesting). I believe this has affected the amount of gobbling throughout the season. It's been almost impossible to call a bird in. I've seen very few lone gobblers.

I saw 6 gobblers, at least 10-12 jakes this morning and never heard a gobble. The weather certainly played a part, but the gobbling just hasn't been the same this year. All the gobblers had hens with them.

 

[Roost 1]

Its been my experience that gobbers wont stay with the hens that arent breeding. Jennies dont usually breed, or not least until late in season. Now I have seen bunches of jakes keep gobblers ran off or shut up.

 

[Boll Weevil]

Certainly possible but I have no direct observations since I only place mineral in front of my cameras.

 

[Woodsman10]

I've been wondering if the trail cam craze is impacting turkey numbers. Most folks use corn to attract deer to the camera site, which also attracts turkeys, along with predators looking for an easy meal.

If it possible that this is contributing to the decline many are experiencing?

How many people seeing a decline run cameras with corn? How many seeing no decline run cameras with corn?

I have mentioned this before. I think it may be a possibility.

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[TheLBLman]

IMO, it is not the single biggest problem, although I do question whether it may be more significant than has been realized. At the very least, it is but one more negative factor that has contributed to a decline where turkey populations had been well established. It causes increased predation and aflatoxin death more than it causes any increased survival.

In certain very localized circumstances, I have no doubt that aflatoxin corn has wiped out entire flocks of turkeys that happened to consume it over a matter of days. It's just a good thing that most feeders/bait stations typically would not attract all the turkeys using a particular square mile. But losing just an occasional flock here and there across a county could be a bigger loss than the fall hunting "kill" in those same counties. From what I understand, a single kernel of aflatoxin corn can kill an adult turkey, and aflatoxin in corn is very common (at least in TN, but not in TX).

I've been told that in Texas, all commercially sold corn is tested for aflatoxin. Any found to contain it, cannot be sold, in TX. It is then repackaged as "deer corn" and distributed to the Walmarts across Tennessee (which allows it to be sold, unlike Texas). You can purchase "aflatoxin-free" corn from your County Co-Op. It has been tested. However, it can still "develop" once exposed to moisture and heat, which commonly happens when it's used for wildlife purposes rather than just feeding chickens and livestock (where it's near instantly consumed).

 

[Andy S.]

Certainly possible but I have no direct observations since I only place mineral in front of my cameras.

x2. I only use salt to pull late summer deer in front of the camera.

 

[@fulldraw]

Goes right along with my theory of baiting being one of the problems leading to the decline.

There's merit to the baiting stuff, look at GA. They legalize it and the turkeys immediately start declining

Aflatoxin has a bigger effect on turkeys than deer. Personally, I think feeding deer has influenced the decline in turkeys. I don't have hard data but I do know two years after a buddy began feeding deer year round the number of turkeys he would hear and see dropped off so much that he quit hunting the farm. Land changed hands to his uncle a few more years later and he quit feeding the deer. Few more years after that the number of turkeys have increased. May just be coincidence.

 

[Bone Collector]

I've said before, that my theory is that there are many factors, but the main one is raccoons, possums and predators in general. I have heard this very argument before and believe it is at least very possible that putting corn out is correlated to predators showing up.

I have also said, that on my place, I have not seen any poults in a while, however, I see jakes, and have actually had 4 show up within the last couple of weeks. I figure If I see them, then at least some birds are getting some eggs to hatch and some of the poults are making it.

 

[AT Hiker]

What about KY and its baiting laws for deer, has it affected the turkeys any?


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[muddyboots]

We use Corn every year to get pictures. Our turkeys are rebounding so it's not the corn. Most I've seen this year in a long time

 

[@fulldraw]

What about KY and its baiting laws for deer, has it affected the turkeys any?


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The farm I was referring to is in Ky.

 

[Roost 1]

I'd be willing to bet that better than 60% of the dead gobblers posted on this site were killed within close proximity to a corn pile/trail camera location.

Not just on this site... Tn wide. Allowing baiting until 10 days before hunting is a death sentence.

 

[muddyboots]

I'd be willing to bet that better than 60% of the dead gobblers posted on this site were killed within close proximity to a corn pile/trail camera location.

Not just on this site... Tn wide. Allowing baiting until 10 days before hunting is a death sentence.

Really? I very rarely run up on any corn in the woods during hunting season. Maybe I hunt in an area that doesn't have that happen much.

 

[ZachMarkus]

I'd be willing to bet that better than 60% of the dead gobblers posted on this site were killed within close proximity to a corn pile/trail camera location.

Not just on this site... Tn wide. Allowing baiting until 10 days before hunting is a death sentence.

Really? I very rarely run up on any corn in the woods during hunting season. Maybe I hunt in an area that doesn't have that happen much.

Same here. I don't know anyone that hunts over bait around here. Also, i don't think it's as easy to kill them over corn as y'all think, I've never hunted over corn but on my farm here in Lawrence county I've fed them through the season this year and ran trail cameras just to kind of get an idea on how many turkeys we have and how many are using the property. I don't hunt there because the population has been so low in the last few years but we had more this year than we have in a long time. A couple weeks before season opened I was getting tons of pics of turkeys every day all throughout the day and as it got closer to season I started to get less and less pictures, these past 4 weeks I have gotten very few pictures but the neighbors have killed some of these birds and they are staying over there. I know them very well and they dont feed corn anywhere close to season. So from what I've seen if I would've hunted over my corn piles it wouldn't have made a difference because the turkeys weren't there. I'm sure there are a bunch that get killed over bait each year but I don't think it's near as many as y'all are saying.

 

[Roost 1]

Either they are feeding them or you dont have any nesting habitat!! Either way seems like you know why you dont have many birds....

 

[Setterman]

I'd be willing to bet that better than 60% of the dead gobblers posted on this site were killed within close proximity to a corn pile/trail camera location.

Not just on this site... Tn wide. Allowing baiting until 10 days before hunting is a death sentence.

Really? I very rarely run up on any corn in the woods during hunting season. Maybe I hunt in an area that doesn't have that happen much.

In the last 5 years I've killed 3 birds in TN that didn't have corn in their crop. So 17 birds are finding whole corn on the side of a mountain where there's not a corn field for 80 miles or more. It's a huge problem not just here

 

[poorhunter]

I've said before, that my theory is that there are many factors, but the main one is raccoons, possums and predators in general. I have heard this very argument before and believe it is at least very possible that putting corn out is correlated to predators showing up.

I have also said, that on my place, I have not seen any poults in a while, however, I see jakes, and have actually had 4 show up within the last couple of weeks. I figure If I see them, then at least some birds are getting some eggs to hatch and some of the poults are making it.

I agree with the predator problem. Used to be that these nest predators were hunted themselves and kept in check. Every youngn' with a .22 would pop a cap in their head. I'm not suggesting this was a good practice, but there were sure fewer of them around. Small game hunting took a lot of them out. Anytime we were out rabbit squirrel quail hunting, these were killed. Now, there is hardly ANY small game hunters at all. Everyone is a "big game" hunter. New hunters don't learn how to hunt, they learn how to harvest.The youngsters "need" to have success when they hunt or they won't like it, so enter in decoys, food plots, corn feeders, cameras etc etc etc. These in and of themselves aren't necessarily bad/wrong, but no one learns their quarry anymore. No one learns biology or management anymore. No one learns the intense joy of hunting and being outside anymore. It's all about the harvest.

I may not be able to express myself so well (especially typing on a phone!), but this is what bothers folks like Setterman so much when it comes to modern hunting tactics.