Turkey Season Dates Matter?

MO's turkey population went down because over time they had fewer places to live as land got turned into subdivisions and strip malls, had an increasing number of hunters killing them, and dealt with the explosion of the strutter decoy/reaping making it very easy to kill birds that otherwise would live.

The first two things we can't do much about. Development will continue and hunter numbers are continuing to increase. The latter issue could be fixed.

It'll never happen, but the absolute best thing that we could ever do for turkeys - better than burns, better than trapping, better than changing dates, would be to prohibit the use of decoys.

We can't continue to let it be so easy to kill a bird in such decline and with a surging popularity to hunt.
 
Setterman said:
I love the late opener. I'm tough enough to hunt in the heat and like our woods have some green to them.
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problem for me is I DO like there to be some green on the trees. What I DONT like is all the green on the forest floor. Where I hunt it gets tall or thick enough I cant even see if I have to sit down and some areas turkeys just stop using because the floor foliage gets to thick.
 
Setterman said:
I love the late opener. I'm tough enough to hunt in the heat and like our woods have some green to them.
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Gosh ain't that the truth. I've never seen so many turkey hunters complain about leaves and heat until they changed the season dates To me id rather hunt when it's warmer Just don't seem right to be wearing deer/duck hunting clothes to turkey hunt
 
drake799 said:
Gosh ain't that the truth. I've never seen so many turkey hunters complain about leaves and heat until they changed the season dates To me id rather hunt when it's warmer Just don't seem right to be wearing deer/duck hunting clothes to turkey hunt
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It's deer hunters that have adopted turkey hunting. Same people think the turkeys stop "moving" when it gets warm.

The heat doesn't bother me one little bit, I'd rather pour sweat than have my hands freeze off trying to work a bird
 
Bgoodman30 said:
I wish they could figure this out. Disease is the only logical explanation.
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Ours died out in a matter of 2 years from 2006-2007. We all cried wolf and no one listened, just laughed about it. In all those years since we have had very very few birds. The population has quadrupled in the last 4 years here.

I think the season dates will help in areas of low populations, but it's not what quadrupled our population in the last 4 years, it also wasn't weather.
 
Setterman said:
It's deer hunters that have adopted turkey hunting. Same people think the turkeys stop "moving" when it gets warm.

The heat doesn't bother me one little bit, I'd rather pour sweat than have my hands freeze off trying to work a bird
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I do agree with the last part, my comments were more just move the season back 1 week that alone would make me happy.
 
FARMTOFIELD said:
Ours died out in a matter of 2 years from 2006-2007. We all cried wolf and no one listened, just laughed about it. In all those years since we have had very very few birds. The population has quadrupled in the last 4 years here.

I think the season dates will help in areas of low populations, but it's not what quadrupled our population in the last 4 years, it also wasn't weather.
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Yep! Ol Mother Nature. Glad you're seeing a rebound
 
MidTennFisher said:
MO's turkey population went down because over time they had fewer places to live as land got turned into subdivisions and strip malls, had an increasing number of hunters killing them, and dealt with the explosion of the strutter decoy/reaping making it very easy to kill birds that otherwise would live.

The first two things we can't do much about. Development will continue and hunter numbers are continuing to increase. The latter issue could be fixed.



It'll never happen, but the absolute best thing that we could ever do for turkeys - better than burns, better than trapping, better than changing dates, would be to prohibit the use of decoys.

We can't continue to let it be so easy to kill a bird in such decline and with a surging popularity to hunt.
Click to expand...

I agree limiting reaping and decoys may help retain some dominant birds but it's not the absolute best thing we can do to help turkeys… Far from it…
 

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