Turkey Season Dates Matter?

deerhunter10 said:
Our birds at our giles County farm seem to disappear over a 2 year period. In maury, marshall and Hickman County gradually. Don't have our giles County farm anymore so unsure what it's like now. But it was unbelievable at the time what it was to when we stopped turkey hunting it. Almost apocalyptic.
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My place around here is loaded with birds . I'm looking at a farm in Giles now and it looks good as well. Been all over it twice now over the last month and numbers seem to look good there too.
 
scn said:
I was more referring to better hunting conditions for hunters than ease of calling a bird in. Early season can be tough with all of hens around. I suspect there are a bunch of folks that give it up well be before the season ends when the temps start hitting 90. I would rather hunt in the snow early than deal with the late season heat, ticks and snakes.
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I love the open harwoods , no green up, just me a mouthcall and a shotgun trying to avoid the eyes of his ladies , with a cold snap to the air and a gobble across the knob!
 
knightrider said:
I love the open harwoods , no green up, just me a mouthcall and a shotgun trying to avoid the eyes of his ladies , with a cold snap to the air and a gobble across the knob!
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SAME, was just something I really loved about those COOL CRISP mornings and very little green up. Made some days really tough but there was just something about it that I still yearn for.
 
deerhunter10 said:
Our birds at our giles County farm seem to disappear over a 2 year period. In maury, marshall and Hickman County gradually. Don't have our giles County farm anymore so unsure what it's like now. But it was unbelievable at the time what it was to when we stopped turkey hunting it. Almost apocalyptic.
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I wish they could figure this out. Disease is the only logical explanation.
 
REN said:
SAME, was just something I really loved about those COOL CRISP mornings and very little green up. Made some days really tough but there was just something about it that I still yearn for.
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It was my absolute favorite time. Also, my property always held birds early in the year and tailed off as the season went on.
 
Dr. Harper's study as mentioned above in the video was very detailed and seen no benefits to the pushback. We are now seeing nonresidents from the South of us instead of the North. They kill out then come here instead of driving to Kentucky. Ran into some myself last season, so the non resident argument for opening later seems to be a wash..( if you do not want non residents opening weekend make rules/quotas like other states have) Several states in the South had a decline in the same period that open early and late,.now several have seen great hatches that open early and later. Common factor seems to be the weather throughout the south during this good 3/4 year run. The 22 hatch here in TN as well as Mississippi which opens mid March was one of the best on record and neither had a delay. Seems to me weather, predators and habitat are the biggest known factors.
 
Bgoodman30 said:
I wish they could figure this out. Disease is the only logical explanation.
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I only found 1 or 2 dead during that entire time. It was my granddad farm and he live out there and never saw but a couple dead. It was unexplainable. Went from the best place I had to turkey hunt to the worst in 1 year.
 
deerhunter10 said:
I only found 1 or 2 dead during that entire time. It was my granddad farm and he live out there and never saw but a couple dead. It was unexplainable. Went from the best place I had to turkey hunt to the worst in 1 year.
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My neighbor on one of my places in Hickman called me and said he found a dead gobbler just laid up on Saturday. Said there were no signs of foul play... Got me worried.
 
I spoke with a Wyoming biologist. They have set their season structure up based on the "dominant gobbler" theory.
It's used both ways actually; in some parts they open season early to help reduce populations and in others push it back to promote population growth.

As for Harper's study, we have discussed this and even in his reports it shows a difference.

Idk, I'm just not willing to give season structure the full credit but I'm also not willing to deny it's effectiveness either.
 
Can't help but think being pushed back 2 weeks has given the birds a better chance to get their breeding taken care of before turkeys start getting killed/harassed by hunters. I've actually experience much more success since the season has been pushed back. I've found way more birds that weren't henned up and were more reactive to calling than when season opened first week of April/last week of march. I've seen very few hens actually. My hope is most are already setting on full nests by the time season gets here.
 
I still say the best thing we could do for turkeys and turkey hunting is open the season earlier but outlaw decoys completely.

This gives us nicer weather for hunting, and saves a lot of turkeys. People who wouldn't even see a turkey without a strutter decoy wouldn't be killing anything. They'd probably eventually quit turkey hunting, which would also be better. Those WMAs are way over crowded in April. We could use an actual decline of hunters rather than the fictional decline of hunters we hear about.
 
Rainbowtrout1 said:
Can't help but think being pushed back 2 weeks has given the birds a better chance to get their breeding taken care of before turkeys start getting killed/harassed by hunters. I've actually experience much more success since the season has been pushed back. I've found way more birds that weren't henned up and were more reactive to calling than when season opened first week of April/last week of march. I've seen very few hens actually. My hope is most are already setting on full nests by the time season gets here.
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And i see that as a problem, to many people finding more success on an already strained resource because folks who couldnt kill birds before now have no problem killing them in may when they will come running to a raped duck call.
 
Bgoodman30 said:
My neighbor on one of my places in Hickman called me and said he found a dead gobbler just laid up on Saturday. Said there were no signs of foul play... Got me worried.
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That's weird. I was talking to a guy I know in Hickman last week that also found a dead one on his property with no signs of anything wrong. He also watched 2 buzzards fall from the sky and lay dead 😳. Riddle me that
 
I believe it is a natural cycle. I have seen this many times in the 30+ years I have been turkey hunting. You have cycles of multiple good years with booming populations and multiple years of sub par populations. It definitely helps that TWRA is looking into how to better the population, habitat, and overall turkey success. But, sometimes you just have to let nature run its course.
 
timberjack86 said:
Knock back non-residents till middle of April and outlaw decoys. Maybe even pop up blinds. I know it's not a popular opinion
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It's popular with me. Decoys make it too easy, plain and simple. The growing popularity of strutter decoys has been a huge detriment to the population.

And I know someone's gonna claim they don't give that much of an advantage to which I'd ask - So you pay $100 for a hyper realistic looking turkey decoy and lug that thing around in the woods during the heat of Spring for no advantage?
 
30 years ago, season dates didn't matter. But there wasn't much pressure on birds then. It was all about the weather

Currently, season dates, harvest numbers, predator management, and habitat management are just as important as weather.
 

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