Great question, and very understandable for a hunter from SE TN that primarily hunts in SE TN. For one, much of west TN is river bottoms, and for the last 3-4 years straight, and many more before that, we have been pummeled with unprecedented rain events, one after the other, etc. Much of the prime bottomland habitat is now a swampland that is inundated from late December until Mar/Apr, and sometimes May/June. Year after year after year of torrential downpours and flooded countryside just doesn't lead to very many opportunities for birds to take root, or have sustainable hatches. Sure we have a few scattered here and there, but is almost a sin to shoot one of the few left in these areas. Furthermore, unless the MS River is extremely high, these counties are open with the same season dates and bag limits as the counties you speak of that are flourishing. TN is a prime example of "one size does not fit all" for turkey management and turkey regulations. Why TWRA hasn't made some changes to the spring turkey bag limits for these hard hit counties is beyond my imagination. This is just one explanation, but there are several other viewpoints and I expect many others to chime in and expound on your question.
