Gobbler, I backed out of this thread pages and pages ago until Brent ask me a direct question other wise I would not have posted to this topic again. The post wasn't about how far I or you have to drive.

I tell you what gobbler or any one else that thinks I'm full of shucks on my area join me on a morning here in Limestone co I will take you from one end of it to the other. We will hunt every property I lease and have permission to hunt on. Go ahead and block off the entire day it will take us that long to cover all the dirt.

It will be the most disappointing day of hunting in your life. Your not going to see droppings or tracks or here a gobble. We might as well be hunting elephant or rhino. You can't kill what's not there. I will lay money on the fact that there is less than 1000 birds in Limestone Co.

low population areas may need some SPECIFIC addressing of the limit/season

Ted- I respect the HELL out of you and what you have accomplished. The simple fact is that you are asking the wrong folks for the answers. As field staff, we will divulge as absolutely as much as we feel we can. At a certain point you need to ask up the chain. You have that ability especially through AWF. Topics like this make some of our staff (why they don't participate) feel like they are in a no win situation. It's almost always political suicide.

And I don't mean through AWF. This forum is followed pretty closely.

Wow, a 10 page thread that had VERY little nastiness and only lost one biologist! Maybe there is hope for this place yet

OK, my self-imposed suspension is over. If I had thought the thread might cost us a biologist, I never woulda started it. It wasn't worth the loss of Matt.

If there really are higher-up state people monitoring this site, then I wanta say this - the crime I am guilty of is that I actually believed the stuff I was taught back in the 70s. It was emphasized at both Auburn and constant publicity by the dcnr that the AL system was the best way to manage turkeys for both hunters and the flock. Everything I've seen since has convinced me this is true. So what is the AL system?

1) You don't shoot a hen under any circumstances.
2) A generous spring season with a generous limit encourages people to manage for turkeys, and the dcnr working with private landowners is the best way to benefit turkeys. All wildlife, for that matter.
3) The only truly surplus bird in the population is the spring gobbler, AFTER most of the hens are bred. After that, it does the overall population no damage to kill him.
4) It is far more effective to give private landowners the right to manage the wildlife on their property than it is for the state to make laws. I don't need a law to tell me not to over-hunt my property. Its not gonna happen.

This is what I was taught, and a lifetime of hunting here and in other states has done nothing but confirm that it is right. I've been hunting in states where they begged me to shoot hens and kill every turkey I could. They saw them as pests. They had low limits and few people could ever develop an appreciation for turkey hunting. I don't wanta see AL become that way.

Genuine science does not change. If something was established as scientifically true in the 60s, then its still true today. When its been proven by 50 years of experience, that just makes me more certain that the earlier research is just as valid as it ever was.

Good hunting to all!

I'm already limiting my kills on certain properties.

I think just about any good turkey hunter would do that. There is nothing ever set in stone but we try to kill about half or 2/3 of the birds we hear gobbling on a place on any given spring and then leave them alone. This goes for private property and WMA's since I hunt skyline about half the time anyway.

I think Preacher's last post should be made a sticky at the top of this forum.

If Alabama didn't have a long season and liberal limits we would never have developed a culture of people that genuinely love turkey hunting like we have.

Guys, I love to hunt them and have killed enough to pave the roads in my town with turkeys. The hard part is I have a 10 yr old that has been sitting by my side in the woods since he was three. He is already one heck of a woods man and runs a call better than most grown men. He is dyed in the wool. I have been letting him kill my birds for the past four years. I just don't want him to loose interest with our current low populations around the house.

I take full advantage of the WMA's and their youth hunts. I also have him headed to Texas this year because he wants to start working on all the subspecies. My wish is that by the time he can drive himself to our properties that he has birds to hunt before and after school each day.

If Alabama didn't have a long season and liberal limits we would never have developed a culture of people that genuinely love turkey hunting like we have. That's what makes Alabama special in the first place.

Yelkca it takes a big man to propose the state close the turkey season in his own county. You're welcome to come up here and hunt some of my places anytime pal