A friend owns some land in Lawrence county I hunt periodically. He won’t shoot the bobcats. He’s kinda fond of watching them while deer hunting. He doesn’t turkey hunt. Anyways the population has increased significantly on his and surrounding landowners. He called the other day, saw two hens with a lot of poults big as quail.
His property is surrounded by 5-7 yr old pine thickets and ag fields.
He doesn’t trap but hunts and shoots every yote he can yet lets bobcats walk. Yotes is the only targeted predator and he has birds around.
Does a new expanding flock of turkeys not have the predator pressure that an established flock might bring?
Do predators increase significantly as food sources (prey) are available. Driving pretbsoecies downward and predators follow suit creating cyclical swings
I think that's exactly right that a reintroduced flock doesn't have the predator pressure as an established flock. I've heard over and over again the stories of turkeys being reintroduced to an area and the population exploding. I believe that must have been the situation when you started hunting, and I don't believe that hearing 25 a morning in AL can last. It probably was bad for you as a hunter to start out that way; dissatisfaction almost certainly has to follow that. I guess it's good that I have always gone turkey hunting just hoping to hear one.
I don't believe that closing hunting season completely would even help on returning you to those days.
Well, I have always thought that the fewer rules for hunting the better, and that idea shapes a lot of my views on turkey hunting too. I'm sure you remember how much I was against the buck limit, and I had no desire even back then to kill 3 of those stinking things. I expected that would be the beginning of a new day of regulating everything about hunting, and it's turned out as I expected. I guess it depends on your perspective if that's good or bad
