Turkey Hunting in Wilcox County?

I have a new lease in wilcox county this year and curious how the hunting is there? Never hunted this county much less South Alabama.

Just send me the gps coordinates and I can find out for ya! lol

It’s been awhile but best weekend of turkey hunting I ever had was in Wilcox County.
I know there are variables property to property but I’d be pretty excited to be trying it if I were you.

If you're close to the river it can be very good hunting.

toughest turkeys in Alabama, been hunted by the best for 200 years.

You oughta know, 200 years ago the creek Indians were teaching you how to make arra heads 😀

Hunted there most of my life. If the property habitat and timber makeup is right, they will be there.

Can't compare with Morgan and Jackson but not bad fo sure.

All the turkeys there have died. You probably missed my thread the other day with county maps. Wilcox is one the highest timber producing counties in the state. Which means no turkeys.

It would be good if you could teach the turkeys to wait to Alabama’s season comes in.They been gobbling for the last month!
We started hearing then gobble in the middle of January.

I’ve hunted Wilcox County most of my life on the same property. I’ve had the best luck turkey hunting there over the years

Unless it is flooding; which seems to more common in the last 10 years. Ask me how I know

YOU CAN GO FROM 300 ACRES TO HUNT TO LESS THAN TEN IN A HURRY WHEN THE RIVER GETS UP.

I can tell you this, in the last 20 years as timber practices have changed to what they are now, the numbers have significantly decreased. Im not saying it is or isn't related, but it is a fact.

How have timber practices changed there in the past 20 years? When they built the papermill in the 60s, they started clear-cutting everything they could buy. Was not most of the county cut by 1980? I wouldn't have thought things had changed that much in the past 20 years, but the only part of the county I ever go to now is the Furman area. I'd say that the timber in that area overall is bigger now than it was 20 years ago.

You are so right Troy; was checking the historical events on NOAA and there have been 10, maybe 11 this week, 70' level floods at Miller's Ferry in the last 9 years. You have to go back 20 more years to find 10 more. May be a cycle; but a problem. If the floods are after the hatch; definitely hits the broods survival

No, preacher, it hasn’t changed. What many on here refer to as modern timber practices started in the Pine Belt a long time ago. When turkey populations boomed in the 80’s and 90’s, we were all happy. Same practices then for the most part. Turkey numbers have both increased and decreased on landscape/county levels with “modern timber harvest practices” in place.

But those timber production maps I posted the other day were pretty cool to see. They could almost be passed off as turkey population maps by county.

In the 70's and 80's there was 1 turkey hunter per !00 gobblers in Clarke, Marengo, Dallas....

When I started with my pawpaw, unless a bird sounded off less than a quarter from the truck, we would just drive a half mile and do it again til we heard 3-4 in one spot...and would see nobody.

Clearcutting began around 1972 by Scotch Lumber in Clarke, the other large companies followed up right after that. since then private land has held the vast majority of turkeys and had the best hunting because it had the best habitat and the least hunters,,,

And then in the late 80's Will Primos made a turkey video and everybody became a turkey hunter or thought they did...and there was 100 hunters for every gobbler.

The best turkey hunters in the world lived in those parts and some still do...Joe Champion, Blue Jones, George Alford, Clifton Philips, Joe Harrison, Jimmy McDaniel, Gene Etheredige...Wilcox and Marengo turkeys are the toughest there are!

I was told when I went to Troy State to college in 1984 by my good friend David to not call to any bird unless I wAS READY TO SHOOT...He wasn't wrong...just not the same makeup as west Alabama.

The place I had the memorable weekend had been thinned the year before. There was something about opening it up the turkeys really liked.

They could see.....

It isnt how or when they cut it, that has changed. Its about how "undergrowth" is managed. 20-25 years ago, it wasn't a widespread mind set to kill everything and anything green that may inhibit a pine trees growth. Herbicide practices have become rampant in the last 20-25 years. That's why those beautiful cutovers that you used to see, that were full of food for the wildlife are now a wasteland, void of any living plant with the exception of broom sage and pine trees.

Life has cheated me in many ways, and this has gotta be one of the biggest.

I lived in Wilcox Co about 1970-75 and my experience was nothing like that. Everyone I knew was a turkey hunter and most were good ones. The land was already being clear-cut, but there were still a lot of turkeys. I hunted the paper company land south of Camden all the way to Hybart, and the place they called the Hills towards Beatrice.

It was by far the most crowded turkey hunting I'd ever experienced, and there were some real jerks in the woods. I probably would have died in a gunfight one morning but my dad happened to be with me that day and kept it from escalating, but he was dang sure mad too. I'll admit things were even worse when I moved to Coosa Co, but Wilcox was far from Utopia. Glad you had a better experience.

You left out Jim Andrews, Rip Godbold, David Gaston, Bill Cooper, Billy Perryman (and his boys Stover and Calvin), and besides the good hunters. pile of folks who killed a bunch of turkeys using bait. Feller who can consistently kill turkeys in Wilcox Co. would be a sho nuff turkey slayer anywhere else.

David Gaston is a good friend of mine and gave me the Lynch box I still use. I spent many a night at his house and many at his mothers house in Camden. Bill Cooper was a good friend as well. Billy was as good a turkey killer as there is.