Meg, I don't think it was any one thing so much as it was
EVERYTHING collectively.
Think about this:
If there were 100 longbeards in a given area, and all the stars aligned perfectly for a much higher percentage of them to be killed in the 1st 2 weeks than normal, then would leave a much smaller percentage remaining than normal for those final 4 weeks.
Typically, there is always a lot less hunting the last week of the season than the 1st.
Another perspective is that many hunters simply aren't as willing to hunt as hard now as they did in times past. What is our average age now? And being more experienced, we prioritize our hunting times to the best odds for success, meaning more hunting earlier in the season than later.
For most of us TN residents, the TN season opening mid-April appears to be better odds than when it opened early April.
Let's say you can afford to spend 10 week days turkey hunting over 6 weeks (plus possibly most weekends).
When the season opened earlier, I saw many resident TN turkey hunters "saving" their vacation days until later in April when more hens would be sitting, and the Toms would be more "callable" to the gun.
I think with the season opening mid-April, those more "seasoned" TN hunters decided to use all their vacation days during the 1st 2 weeks rather than "saving" some of their vacation days until later in the season. We simply had a higher percentage of the hunters afield hunting (1st 2 weeks this year), the weather was great, and a higher percentage of the available flock was consequently harvested.
Then add in since more hunters had exhausted their vacation days, less hunting later in the season.
As for me personally, I enjoyed those first 2 weeks, then switched over to fishing
And I did not tag out, as I typically "save" my final tag, "just in case" I might want to use it later.
I've often said I enjoy the hunting more than the killing. This year, I saw two die to my calling, and some more called up get a pass, before I finally took one myself.
After days on end of hunting, then taking an old Tom,
I was just "done" until next year.
More content to spend subsequent weeks fishing than hunting.
I think there are many more TN turkey hunters behaving much like this.
