Turkey Populations in Alabama?

What are some of the best counties or areas in Alabama that hold a good population of wild turkeys?

Jackson or Pickens county have the highest harvest on game check.

Marshall county probly

...Ain no turkeys in AL..

From what I’ve seen, that just means they’re the most crowded with turkey hunters

Look no further than Jackson county. The whole county is a turkey farm, and anyone doing internet scouting should focus 100% of their efforts in it

The numbers don't lie

Jackson County just has smarter people that know how to operate gamecheck. The hunting actually sucks.

You know whats funny...i grew up huntin in jackson county...an i wouldnt give a nickle for it unless its flat

170 killed in Wilcox Co??? those numbers are a joke.

Coosa & Tallapoosa have been really good to me. Pickens and Greene too.

Not necessarily any smarter..... just good decent law-abiding folk

I’d have to look it up but I’m pretty sure it says somewhere in the Bible that you ain’t supposed to do stuff like that

And what about this?

>>>Not necessarily any smarter..... just good decent law-abiding folk<<<

At least I have some numbers to back it up; you just making up stuff.

Ain't no turkeys in coosa, deer either. Stay the hell outta my turf

Yep. Killed and reported are completely different.

Dr. B

Coosa county always has had the best Turkey hunting of the 10 or so places I have hunted

I figure the ones that have enough to have a fall season have the most turkeys.

Morgan co

^^ what he said

Sure ain't no turkeys left in south Monroe co.

This list is spot on. To bad you can't get but one a day. Most mornings you could get a limit in Jackson County before Jack's stopped serving breakfast.

That’s fall season is a hold over from when there were turkeys there. Not any more. They gone.

It's a good strategy for a starting point in a new state or for a new hunter. Regs vary within a state based on management goals. When I'm looking for just numbers/opportunities, I just look for the areas with the least restrictions (e.g., season length, harvest limits, antler point, etc.) and start there. It is, however, obviously just a starting point.

I know there was a pretty good hatch around my neck of the woods...I expect the 2020 spring to be a good one.. Won't take much for the 2019 to be an improvement over 2018.

Gobblebox killed the last turkey seen in Monroe county 3 years ago. Honestly, turkey populations here are a small fraction of what they were even 10 years ago.

We had decent turkey numbers until 4yrs ago. Last spring I heard one turkey gobble on our place. We did not see a turkey this deer season. We used to see turkeys all the time during the deer season. Not sure what happened but whatever it is, it's pretty dang serious.

That bunch from Auburn has been up here for 5 years trying to figure out what happened to the birds on Skyline. That’s no joke.

That bunch from AU is wasting time. Might need to check a few locals out before they waste much more time.

They must be trying to figure out what makes Jackson County the turkey mecca of AL. That's what happens when you're #1 in the state 3 consecutive years.

Mold on all the corn is killing the turkey....no joke. Look it up, it is a serious problem in Alabama. Less turkeys now than 20 years ago for sure.

More turkeys killed in Henry than Clarke and Choctaw? BS. Maybe more REPORTEDfrom Henry than Clarke or Choctaw.

How does it keep from wiping them out in other states where people put out corn?

And no Montgomery on the list,... which means less than 130. Hell we usually have 15-20 or so at our turkey rodeo with just a few buddies every year, and that's just one day.

where can the rest of that list be found?

When I did the screenshot that's as far as my phone would let me scroll. You can retrieve the data here now though https://game.dcnr.alabama.gov/Report/Compare/Turkey. Montgomery came in with 120 birds last year.

crazy that I scored about 15% of them then, on one day

Tss and most of all decoys “fanning “ has upped the harvest by a substantial amount.IMO

No one around us has upped their harvest half of them dont even hunt anymore because you never hear more than 1 turkey. No clue what happened but the Turkeys are gone comparatively speaking.

Ben, I’m sorry to hear that. What county are you hunting in if you don’t mind me asking?

Perry. Have had 2 properties about 10 miles a part and both of them went from large populations to extremely small populations. I am talking about seeing flocks of 30-60 birds at times and hearing 6-12 gobblers a morning to hearing 0-1 bird per morning, seeing 0 babies, seeing a few hens a year and rarely seeing any turkeys in the winter

There’s probably single days here that many are killed there.

That’s awful. I’d be flat out depressed.

The good news is having hardly any turkeys has made me a better turkey killer. When there is no option you stay on the bird that gobbled longer and become a better hunter imo. But man I would love the kids to hear turkeys like we used to hear.

We have 1200 acres on the one spot and have never killed more than 5 turkeys off it in a season in the 30 yrs we owned it

Been dealing with it for 13 years now in TN and I’m still waiting on it “cycle back around”. Whatever it is y’all better get used to it, hundreds die off and a handful is all you are left with for years to come. I’ll continue to chase them around the South until there are no more populations nearby worth hunting and then move out west somewhere I guess. Southern middle TN went from Mecca to wasteland, north Alabama is too, and other areas are heading that way along with other areas of the state as well.

What’s weird about your part of the world is that it can back pretty strong about 3-4 years ago but then seemed like it kinda faltered again.

It was/is spotty and I just don’t see how it can ever return to anywhere close to what it was. Thousands of acres and a couple dozen turkeys is all that inhabits any of it.

So obviously a reduced limit isn’t going to help the population problems much..

Welp yall have thuhruhly dapresst me....might as well take up a new hobby...maybe collectin fanny packs..yeh that sounds nice.

Correct.

I credit it to a lack of nest predator control...a lot of it is the lack of education of the damage that coons and opossums do...Also, burning during nesting season on WMA's and National Forest lands...

It's probably got a lot to do with the guys who don't abide by the 5 bird limit. I've known several people over the years who boast about killing 15+ a year. Hell I can't even break my 3 in one year record.

I have a place that I've had for 8 or 9 years now and there have been over 100 turkeys killed off of it since we got the place and until this year we only had 1k acres. there are more coons, yotes and bobcats than any other place I've ever been to, they cut the absolute piss out of timber around there and there are chicken houses everywhere. guarantee you on a good morning you will hear 12-20 gobble on just the 1k acre section. between 6 counties last year I saw 43 longbeards, 63 or 67 hens and 17 jakes on less than 3k acres of land, I don't think the states popluation is declining I jst think certain areas are low on numbers, same thing with deer populations

I still to this day don't understand why DCNR went from the three bird allowance to the 5 bird allowance. That's over a 60% (sixty percent!) increase of the killable population, and then not expect an already fragile population, along with rising number of turkey hunters and natural predators, to be drastically reduced.

Populations were good in my area in the 90s. I could hear 1/2 dozen birds gobble any given morning. Now lucky to hear 2. Used to see several flocks during deer season, seldom see them these days. Even saw a bachelor group of gobblers that numbered 17 back then. I suppose some areas hold more birds but pretty sad hunting in southeast Coosa these days at least on the properties within hearing distance of the property I hunt.

David

Same deal for me, and I'm probably not far from you. Our place is off of 231 below Rockford.

Folks think I’m kidding about Skyline but there isn’t 1/4 of the birds we had 15 years ago.

Serious question, is there a good reason to suggest that reporting rates would vary by county in Alabama? For example, differences in internet/smartphone access? Amish (or similar) communities that may not report? Etc...

To my knowledge, AL has never had a 3 bird limit. It was 5 in 1959 for sure; could have been 3 at some point before then but I have never heard of it. Charles Kelly said that they wanted a generous limit so that landowners would be encouraged to manage their land for wildlife. It was just the basics of capitalism applied to wildlife. I think it worked very well; AL had good populations of turkeys long before most southeastern states.

Gobblers don't assist in raising poults. I've always been of the opinion that legal hunting makes no difference to the overall population. I know for certain that I have hunted the same land for over 50 seasons, and our turkey population is about the same as it ever was.

That, and I bet it goes the other way too.

Insert rich guy who spent the night at lodge and rides his crew Li-ion Polaris EV to his favorite spot in the middle of his 3,000 acres. He and his buddy double up at day break, ride back to the house, clean turkeys and eat a breakfast and never even thought about it

My grandad (passed away) wouldn’t register a deer just out of principle. He didn’t consider it any of their business

Lots of reasons for low numbers

Yeah, reckon why they did that? Oh wait, they didn’t.........

Lol

I think you're definitely right that low reporting goes both ways. And I get that overall reporting rates are low in the state. However, I'm still wondering if there is enough variability in these factors among counties to produce differential reporting rates as this has been suggested by others in this thread. If reporting is uniformly low across the state, then then the reported harvest would still be valuable for relative harvests.

I guess I'm WRONG about that, ok. I could've sworn tho....... sorry. Carry on.

they raised it to six for several years then back to five.

I’d say the opposite I think numbers are on the rise. More people improving turkey habitat, planting chufa and milo ect. Some folks are simply getting out turkeyed andnthink nimbers are down.

Our place was like this when we got it. There were turkeys everywhere. We would see large groups of birds and as far as the first couple weeks of April, there would be turkeys gobbling everywhere. We wouldn't know which gobblers to try to set up on sometimes. The most gobblers killed on our 1k acres in a spring was 4. The last season we had decent numbers, we left 4 different gobblers gobbling because we had to pack up and leave. The next season which would have been the spring of 2017, we had 1 gobbler gobble on our place while we were hunting. Same last season. We just went and listened to him gobble in the morning. We had decided we weren't going to even bother him. I have a couple invites to hunt some property in Clark co. this spring. I just don't think we will have any turkeys again this spring. I hope I'm wrong.

Corn. Corn......excuse me, supplemental feeding is what has happened. And corn is serious bidness in Bama just like the cald. If you arent supplementally feeding during deer season, that is exactly what happened to your birds. This new supplemental feeding law opened pandoras box. There was always a lot of corn in the woods in alabama but it's gotten ridiculous now with the new 100 yds out of site rule. If you're not doing it, your birds are probably baited off of you by a neighbor two or three properties away.

That's not our problem. Most of our neighbors are older folks that don't deer hunt much anymore but they all have sup. feeders out year around and they are always complaining to us about how they aren't getting any turkeys coming to the feeders anymore. They noticed they were getting less and less pics of turkeys at the feeders 3yrs ago. There was some big pasture down the rd from our place that we used to park and watch turkeys in that pasture almost everytime we went into town. Haven't seen a turkey there in 2 spring and none at all this deer season. It's very concerning.

It seems A lot of folks agree the decline in gobblers has come over the last 15 yrs. This spring will be the 15 th anniversary of being able to use decoys”fanning “. You’d be surprised how many folks that’s their only strategy just like they watch on all the hunting shows.Its about the only thing I know of that changed at almost the same time.

I read an article yesterday that said North Carolina NWTF has a program going on with Duke Power to stop bush hogging powerlines and right of ways during the nesting and hatching season. Supposedly they had data that alot of nests were being destroyed because the bush hogs were wiping them out. Something about the hens nesting in the powerlines because it was preferred nesting cover.

The NWTF guy said it had promising results. They were studying it against some pheasant study in the midwest where those nests were being destroyed.

I don't know how much of an impact that would have on land without power lines and gas lines, but it sounded interesting. I hunt with some guys in north Chambers county that have some jam up land and I mean it's nice habitat, plenty for birds to eat and nest. Good hardwoods and thinned pines like you don't see much anymore. Even on their place something has been off the last 3 years and it isn't hunting pressure. We used to hear 5 to 8 birds every morning, and now it's 2 or 3 at best. I don't think we can really pin point what's lowered the numbers, but I know that on my commute to work and trips all over Alabama and Oklahoma, there are a whole lot less turkeys everywhere. I can drive from my house to Lafayette AL and back 2 days in row during turkey season and see 1 or 2 birds no matter which route I take. It's a mystery as to where they are or what happened.

I think ol WB is on the right track. Land managers who create habitat, trap, burn, ect and provide for turkeys have plenty of birds. In fact I'd say most reports I've heard from this Fall are as positive as I've heard in several years. I think we had a great hatch last year and the next couple of years of hunting should be great.

Reducing the limit and shortening the season isn't going to do a thing to help turkey populations. The most important contributing factor to turkey numbers is nesting success and hatch rates. Unfortunately, the most important factor to successful hatches is weather, and that's out of our control. Controlling nest robbers and providing nesting areas on the other hand are entirely in the land managers control. If you aren't doing your part to eradicate them and provide habitat, dont complain about your lack of turkeys.

And lots and lots and lots of immature (and mature) pine stands that are essentially large scale briar patches that a turkey couldn't see beyond 10 ft from all directions.

I'll add to this...two years ago on a particular prop I hunt we had 3 gobblers and about 12 or so hens, and I killed one of the gobblers. Last year, we only had 1 gobbler, 4 jakes, and only 8 hens, and it was miserable the couple of times we hunted the place without killing a gobbler there. We decided to start trapping a little and managed to only get 6/7 coons and opossums. I don't know how much effect the little trapping had, but it seems like it may have saved one nest because this year, we have 5 gobblers and 18 hens at least! More turkeys than they have ever seen on this property. Let me add that this property has literally everything you can ask in terms of habitat from mature hardwoods, grown up cutover, mature pines, cattle pasture, creeks, pond, and a lake, so there honestly should be even more birds than that on the 350 acres which is why we have began to hammer the nest predators this year with 15 dead and counting.

My neighbors and I are on a trapping regimen. It’s payed off so far

You’ve got a better count on your population than the US census bureau.

How the hell do you know how many hens (or gobblers) you have on 350 acres?

From cams, to the landowner being out there everyday and seeing the flocks come to the pasture/riding around...don't know exactly but definitely have seen a major jump from last year due to what I believe as a good hatch as well as possibly the trapping a little..

I'm not claiming to have an exact number of birds, but it's very easy to get a gauge of population numbers when birds are flocked up in the winter.

It isn’t real hard. I know I have 3-5 gobblers 12 hens and 3 jakes hanging around my 40 acres. How do I know? I’ve only had hundreds of pics a no telling how much time watching them this season.

I guess I’ve got too many roosting areas on property lines

Mine could be double or half the population at any given moment

Or you've just got too many to count

Certainly haven’t ever tried to count. Just need a few to make it fun