Tennessee officials lower turkey bag limit

TWRC lowers bag limit to three and ends "bonus" turkeys on WMAs for the next two seasons. Five counties along the Mississippi River now have a two-bird limit, and other counties have changes including no more autumn season in Lincoln County.


https://newschannel9.com/sports/out...sion-votes-down-nighttime-coyote-hunting

We will be next.


What they could explore rather than lowering the limit, is stop the absurd practice of shooting hens in that state.

I don't think the few bearded hens that are killed every spring/fall is what is causing declines in so many areas of our state. I do agree though that hens should never be killed.

I am on the Tennessee turkey hunter Facebook page and you think there is only a few killed?? Good Lord I’ve never seen so many people blatantly shoot bearded hens not mistakenly and kill as many jakes as they do in Tennessee...they get all mad when I call em out for sucking at turkey hunting and settling for those lol but no wonder there is a decline...

Them hens are fine eating.

Lol cheaper to get some good sliced turkey from the grocery store

There are just as many hens killed in Alabama as Tennessee. Dont kid yourselves.

you are full of shitt if you believe that....

Hens with or without beads were legal in fall season.

Those are Mardi Gras hens. The one with most beads has the best rack.

They show the most titties

If you listen to the turkey biologists, shooting mature gobblers is pretty absurd. Not saying I agree, but that's what they say.

It throws the whole pecking order into chaos.

They sort that out pretty quickly. Shoot a hen lose a nest every season she is fertile.

And if they REALLY believed that mess (that taking out mature gobblers too early affects breeding dynamics), the second rule change after starting the season later would be to outlaw decoys, and fans, and all that other stupid chit. There is nothing at all about saving the life of gobbler number 4 or 5 (killed later in the season by default) that addresses the fact that gobblers 1 through 3 had their entire defense system switched off by a damn fan as he otherwise stood in the middle of a bunch of hens, basically unkillable at that moment until he laid eyes on the God-forsaken thing and now he marches to his almost guaranteed death like a zombie. Barely different than watching Jimmy Houston shoot a damn drugged deer in a pen.

It's interesting how virtually all of that is coming from a couple of biologists who post on Facebook. The more that people buy into that theory, the more studies are funded and the more money they make.
Ask one of those guys how many more poults you have in areas that aren't hunted and they don't know - needs more funding.

I saw the biggest drove of poults this morning that I've seen in years. Somehow those hens reproduced in spite of the hunting.

Been seeing more poults than normal also in North Alabama. Bet it is the same in Tennessee. In 2 years when the 2 year old gobblers are setting the woods on fire. These ass goblins will be patting themselves on the back and telling everyone what a good regulation change they made.

414 bearded hens killed this past spring, statewide. That's about 4 per county. Ya I call that a few. But like I said before, I'm completely against shooting a hen anytime.

Banning decoys, fans, and reaping/fanning was one of my suggestions when I emailed them. It will never happen though.

Why did they lower the limit? Are they claiming low population numbers of something?

400ish hens killed in Tennessee this spring. If you dont think there were 400 hens killed in the state of Alabama this spring whether bearded, or collateral damage in a flock. You are out of touch with reality, and full of shitt.

It's real damn easy to pound your chest and say Alabama hunters dont do that, but they ain't any different than anywhere else in the country, and Alabamas data systems are a joke. Yall dont even have a clue as to how many gobblers were harvested in the state, and you want to act like there wasnt 400 hens killed. Like I said dont kid yourselves.

Lol I’ve seen bout half those posted to Facebook and acted like some kind of big bad turkey killer after either killing a hen or jake lol

400ish hens REPORTED in Tennessee. Actual harvest was much higher because the state tells its hunters it’s ok to shoot them.

Were hens killed in Alabama? Without a doubt some hens met their demise because of collateral damage or some occasional frustrated hunter, but 400? Let’s not be asinine here.

Do you hunt Tennessee? Your whole argument seems to be the defensive reaction that a lot of children use.....points finger “well y’all do it too”.

Hens have been legal regardless of beard in the fall season for years. Tennessee has always had some messed regulations. I believe the use of decoys”fans”like PCP said has put a hurting on the population. I know people that couldn’t kill a turkey without it if their life depended on it.Ive fanned a couple myself and it’s nothing more than shooting a turkey. Almost every turkey hunt on TV uses them including all the big names.

Absolutely, I live in Tennessee. Not defensive, I wish they would outlaw it. it's just laughable to think it hasn't happened in every other southeastern state with the amount of hunters there.

I know of a couple that got dusted on purpose in Lauderdale county, so I'd say the counties that actually have a population have had a few killed.

For what its worth, I've not seen a negative impact anywhere I've hunted in the state, except for Lawrence and Wayne counties that border Alabama. Whatever happened to the turkeys we had in those counties, had absolutely nothing to do with harvest of any kind, as I understand it's happened in Lincoln and Hickman to.

out of touch??? Sure I am. I started killing turkeys 53 years ago, have killed over 150 myself, another 100+ called in and killed by guests beside me. Spent 26 years as an Alabama Game Warden catching law violators. 400+ hens killed in Alabama??? You are a fkn moran if you believe that bullshitt.

Troy, you don't believe that 5 hens per county are getting killed?? I'll bet that many are killed by pure accident or novice hunters.
Personally I got no problems shooting hens, especially where there's too many. When the gobblers are still henned up on the last day of season, you need to thin some hens

I have never known anyone who admitted to killing a hen in Alabama even by accident but I'm sure it happens especially in the fall when everyone is deer hunting.

You can’t have too many hens in the south. It’s not like they can over-populate. Or run out of food. They can eat anything. Hen turkey in the south have enough life obstacles to deal with already.

I dont care what you have done, I never accused you of killing hens, but to say it doesn't happen here is a joke. If you honestly believe that there aren't many hens killed in alabama, you live in a fairy tale world. Theres no telling how many are killed by non Turkey hunters during deer season, or in the spring when they randomly show up in someone's yard because they started a nest on the edge of it.

I apologize for calling you a fkn moran. You ain't that smart and I just dissed a bunch of legit morans.

This is a good example of Tennessee applying Alabama Style game laws to a situation and realizing at least in part what they did was totally stupid.

Good for Tennessee. They have needed to make a change for a while. Hopefully they will lasso in their doe blasters very soon as well.

🤣🤣🤣 but you have no argument against it, just childish commentary.

I dont agree with needing to kill hens, but you are 100% correct on the rest of it. I'm not sure why some are so naive to it.

I’m sure that you have data to back up your claim then, right? If not you are the one with something that is just opinion. I’m sure he can dig up hundreds of idiots on Tennessee turkey hunting pages beating their chest over shooting a hen whereas you can only offer an opinion. An opinion not shared by many I might add.


I’m not trying to say there’s a better class of hunter in Alabama. We have our idiots and novices just like any other state. The fault lies at the feet of the Tenn DNR. If Alabama said it was open season on hens you can bet there would be a pile of them shot every year........ as stupid as that is.

Why is it stupid to kill hens? Just curious.

Cause mama said stupid is as stupid does

Because it’s not a biologically sound practice when we as hunters are removing more birds from the landscape than the birds can replenish on a yearly basis. Turkeys are a renewable resource, not an infinite resource. Killing hens is stupid.

Rock, you just have no argument here, have you shot any hens in Tennessee? There’s absolutely not as many hens killed here. Neither one of us can prove it so we can leave it at that.


I doubt very seriously the hens killed in Tennessee has decimated populations in some areas. I do believe most of this is caused by a few people like mentioned all over social media. I honestly haven’t seen a lower population anywhere I have ever hunted other than the area I have hunted in Nebraska. That’s all BCs fault.

Because you can't kill a gobbler when they are henned up is not a reason to kill them. A large population of hens eats bugs and worms , turkeys are not like deer that can overrun carrying capacity. More hens = more gobblers.

you have absolutely NO evidence of the numbers of hens being killed that YOU claim. Just your stupid opinion. Sad, really sad.

Like I said, I worked 26 years in conservation law enforcement. I think I remember arresting two folks for killing hens, both in deer season. Maybe knew of another dozen bearded hens being killed. My experience is close to dozens of other conservation officers I worked with over that TWENTY SIX YEARS. There is no evidence that 400+ hens are killed in Alabama each year . Only the raving of a lunatic from Teen(where they probably kill a hell of a lot more hens that 400).

It’s kinda funny how all of this lines up perfectly with theories of whether or not to kill does.

Not to anyone with a shred of knowledge on the matter. There are 25+ million deer in the U.S with a fawn mortality rate of <30%. Deer populations are thriving. On the flip side there are 6 million turkeys in the U.S with a nest/poult mortality rate of >80%. This means that approximately 15% of all eggs laid mature into adult turkeys. In a hens lifetime you can expect her to raise less than 15-20 turkeys to adulthood. Turkey populations are dropping all over the nation with the exception of Florida who have pretty much priced everyone except the hardcore guys out of the game.

You are not comparing apples to apples bro.


As a footnote to this point I know Brandon was joking above about my impact on Nebraska turkey populations (and he’s pretty dang rough on them himself lol) but he’s not wrong about the population thing. We started going to Nebraska around 11-12 years ago. The first time we went up there we arrived in town around noon and just to get a lay of the land we rode around that afternoon just looking. I’m guessing just riding around we saw close to 500 longbeards in one afternoon. Fast forward to today...... you can go on those same farms that we rode around on just a decade ago for hours on end and count on one hand how many longbeard you will see. That’s a stone cold fact.

I know of 2 hens killed by me or 10 buddies in the last 30 yrs. I would be shocked if 50 were killed in Alabama this spring.

The guys I know in Nebraska have said the same thing, and not just because "those non-residents are here!" They said the increased hunting from everyone has changed things in the last decade.

As for turkeys, y'all know for fact that a heavy rain and flood can destroy a nest. The hen might re-nest, depending on the timing of the flooding. If it rains like hell during the time poults can't fly, they can and likely will drown. This doesn't even include snakes, possums, foxes, coyotes, tractors, dogs and whatever else gets them. A turkey that makes it to adulthood is a tough sumbitch, no matter if it's a hen or gobbler.

You'd be surprised how wrong you are.
The people shooting hens ain't gonna call the GW and tell him about it.

so just how many hens do you personally KNOW of that were killed this year in Alabama Mark??????

Well that's easy Troy...... None.
Are all your questions this easy? 😉

mostly easy, you gave the right answer.......

Dunno what the final estimate for gobblers killed in Alabama was. Let’s say 25,000 thousand were killed. 400 dead hens would be be 1.6% of that amount. I would say that is a pretty fair ballpark estimate of the amount of hens accidentally killed. No doubt Tennessee’s hen count is far higher with the legal fall, spring and incidental kills combined,

Out of the 250 plus you’ve seen die Fred did you see a few oopsies?

one, my Capt killed a gobbler at 20 yards and a hen standing at 50 yards that was unseen. He wrote himself a ticket for it.

Made the balls jump up asking the ole warden that one. 😆

I’ve seen a bunch of turkeys die and only seen one hen killed as collateral. I’ve known of a guy who shot a couple bearded hens on purpose. I really don’t think it happens that often in AL.

jump what, didn't bother me at all. I didn't shoot it...