Been scouting , having seen much sign or heard many turkeys! Anyone else hearing any?
I’m listening to three right now off the porch.
Places I always hear turkeys , just not hearing anything
Some areas in the state are down they say. The two areas I hunt had lots of Jake’s last year. I’m beginning to think turkeys are changing a bit from age old ways. Other things are changing so why not them. Just like rabbits going more to holes, elk not standing around like cattle, turkeys don’t gobble as much as they did overall a few years ago. Just a theory.
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Talked with others around here all telling me they are not seeing or hearing many birds either
They were down here at the house for a couple years before last year. I bored down on cats, coyotes, coons and possums this winter to try to help in some way.
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Last fall turkey was everywhere around here! Hopefully they will start showing up . I just hope some disease hasn’t affected them
In parts of the state they are doing ok but in other areas they are all but extinct. I don’t buy the nest predation being the sole cause of it either, we had plenty of nest predators when they were thriving. The cold wet springs probably play a role to, but I think there is a disease component as well. There is a.big creek bottom near where I live you used to be able to ride down through there in the early evening and see 100 or more birds the last now if you see 4 or 5 it is normal
The KDFWR is supposed to be doing a study on what is causing the decline
Right know there in big breeding congregates ( that’s really the wrong term as they ain’t started breding yet) they ain’t broke up yet. Toms are ready but the hens are still a couple weeks off. If this old cold weather breaks the hen will bust up and scatter and the gobblers will fallow.
All the birds I’m seeing know are in big groups still. should start to see single hens before long.
Just a little later than normal.
We had a great hatch in 2022 and a good hatch last year. Should be plenty of two year old.
I have little confidence in fish and wildlife getting to the bottom of enythang but my pockets!
Colt
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I bet i’ve seen 100 turkeys over the past two weeks. In 3 or 4 different counties total. 90% of them gobblers that are alone or in a pair.
I had five gobblers together and now there’s three. Two have broken off somewhere. Been hearing a lot of yelping last few days too. Things about to start happening.
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good luck on your hunts guys
Speak of the devil
3 fat hen just came picking through the pasture below my kitchen window.
They’ll start busting up know.
Colt
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4 different birds from my front porch this morning they only show up around my house when they break up for spring so it has starting in my area.
Colt
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I stepped out the door yesterday and spooked two hens in my driveway.
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I’ve heard one gobbler this spring but I never had many on my property… That said a lot of guys I know who are die hard turkey hunters are very concerned about the turkey population right now… They all tell me its down in their areas
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Well you can’t have such high success rate and poor cold hatching periods and a bunch of turkey all at the same time.
Just ain’t gonna work.
Lots and lots of guys are killing both birds there first spring didn’t use to be that way blinds, superior decoys and 70 yard shotguns have consequences.
Colt
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Over hunting! That’s the one thing no one want’s to admit, and probably one of the biggest factors to having fewer Turkey’s, or any game animal for that matter! Deer herd is way down here, either sex hunting from September, till January, and increased bag limits that most everyone that deer hunts seem to think they are required to shoot them now, because, hey, the State says I can! Those factors have achieved what the Insurance Companies want; Which is fewer deer! If the individual hunters that Turkey hunt would put a self imposed limit of one Gobbler each Spring on themselves, no matter how many the regulations say you can take, I can’t help but believe that Spring Gobbler numbers would grow noticeably within a 3-5 year period! Same goes for the deer population! Do you really need 6 or 7 deer each year? Some do. and they utilize them to feed their Families, but in most cases, I doubt the average deer hunter will go through more than a couple of deer a year ! The Fish and Wildlife Department seems to be caught up in an uncertain environment these days, between Proven Wildlife resources Managment vs Political Power Plays, and pressure from Big Business on how to best do things, and yet try to maintain a good public image with everyone at the same time! Not a good thing for them, the wildlife, or ultimately us, in the long run! These days, it seems to me, that if we want to have anything for the future, (no matter what that may be); we ourselves must do our part, as best we can, by using common sense to achieve it! Don’t take more fish or game than you will actually use in a years time! Encourage others to do the same! Go back to hunting, instead of corn pile sitting. Is competing in a contest to kill upteen number of animals, just for a plastic trophy, and bragging rights really something that you think you will look back on in ten years and be proud of?! What about digging out every sprig of ginseng on the same ridge for several years, until it’s all gone, and there is none in that area any more? All of these things are the things that we can control ourselves, on a everyday basis, and in my opinion, will do more than all the laws and regulations that ever get passed! What’s your thinking ?
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Well it’s like this when I started having turkeys to hunt me and Dad was the only ones killing turkeys in this end of the county and we never had a bunch and there was always a gobbler or two left after we was done some years we’d kill four around home sometimes 2 hear and 2 elsewhere but regardless there was always a bird or two left around gobbling at the end of season. The last several seasons we only kill one each around hear but no fear there is so many people hunting know that they usually mop up the rest. Then there’s the spring breaded hen killing witch is flat out bull crap I can only kill one hen in the fall because the state thinks that’s the issue but I can kill two count them two bearded hens in the nesting period if I so choose. I watched a big pretty white bearded hen all spring last year she was in my yard ony pasture in front of me a couple morning and I never even was tempted to kill her. Then the last weekend of season a 65 year old man who has killed 25 or 30 birds killed her out of a pop up blind and quiet frankly if I had to bet over a pile of corn. Why he had already killed a tom that spring why did he need that hen an. This is the same old man who as a younger.man would kill 100 squirrels a year with shot gun and would frequently have a mess in the back of his truck that would be laying there with the hair slipping. Hogs and fish and wildlife are complicit there so caught up in the need to LOOK like they know what there doing, that they make bad decisions.
At this point in time we should prolly be gobbler only 1 bird in the spring.
Again thee is no way you and convince me that we should limit hen killing in the fall and allow them killing in spring at that point you’ve lost all credibility with me.
As far as deer the numbers around home have been low for year ever since we got a two-week gun season that was either sex the whole time are deer numbers crashed and never have come back. Me and Dad have only killed 1 doe around home in prolly 15 or 20 years because. And we can and have eat 6 or 7 but most years we just have to do without.
Colt
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I haven’t even seen a turkey in Livingston County in about 6 months. Dont even see them while driving down the road anymore.