State Turkey Stats

I was perusing the county by county turkey stats on the Conservation Dept website.
It appears to me Game Check (Game Chuck??) compliance is much less for turkeys than it was for deer.
There were about 200,000 deer checked, which is probably semi-close to right. There have been about 14,000 turkeys checked. Of course the processors are the “wild card” on deer enforcement but not a thing with turkeys. No real point here. Just an observation.

My turkey processor said this new gamecheck deal is killing his business

I looked at it this week also and thought it was higher than I would have thought ! Noticed hi-Jackson was leading in reported kills . Been seeing a few on our farm , hope they are getting started !

If it is at 14,000 now, then it's gonna end up very close to the 16,000 that were reported last season during the covid shutdown.

I don't think that they are getting more than about 30% of the actual kill reported on GC, and I don't see it improving. GC has made it a certainty that we will never again have a reliable harvest estimate.

I would agree that participation is way down. As stated already, game check numbers went up due to enforcement at processors. Pretty simple to clean a turkey before you ever leave the woods unless of coarse you have to post it to social media.

If you think participation and reports are that low how many birds you think are getting killed?? I def agree reporting sucks but idk if it’s that low. I really don’t think we’ve been killing as many birds As always be presumed to be.

I think Missouri gets real good reporting. And if they killing 40k idk if Alabama is really getting near that many. But I could be clueless

And how does GC guarantee we never will have a reliable count? Which way would be better? I have my thoughts but curious to yours

Fixed tag on animal before moving. Print your next one off after checking that one in. I’m not saying that’s how I would want to do it but it would have to be more accurate.

That’s right along with my idea to fix reporting. A purchase as you go physical tag. In general people wouldn’t buy them until needed so you’d have a good count by home many you sold. And your bird damn sure better have a tag attached if checked.

We've been arguing about this for all of the 19 years I've been on aldeer. I always thought that the hunter survey provided good info for setting seasons and limits. Every branch of science uses random sampling and I never saw any reason to think that it shouldn't work for this purpose. And they did it for more than 50 years and whatever problems it had were not as important because they should have been similar year after year. The trend is what's important, and the survey surely showed the trend.

Those who filled out the survey had no incentive to lie, so they probably didn't. It didn't count hunters who weren't required to buy a license, so it understated the harvest, but it did the same year after year.

The director said it was useless when he was pushing GC, so GC is all that I know of that they have now. The survey could provide good estimates if only 30% returned them, but if only 30% participate in GC, the numbers it provides are what is useless. It needs 100% participation to be accurate, and we all know it isn't getting close to that. So we will never again know the true harvest. I know of way more turkeys that are killed and not reported than are reported, and I have never thought that I hung around with the criminal element. Maybe I do.

If they are killing 40k a year in Missouri, with a 2 bird limit, only 1 bird allowed the first week, and arguably less hunters, you really think we are killing less?

If folks are filling out surveys that could potentially lower the limit or take hunting days away, I don’t think they’re too overly helpful. I think there’s plenty incentive to lie. However, nobody really knows.

No doubt some would now. If they are still doing the survey, I wouldn't put near as much faith in it as a decade ago. I have filled out 2 in previous years; I wouldn't send it back now. I don't think they do it anyway. If they do, they don't tell us peasants.

I do yes. Because I believe they have more turkeys to start and that overall to the average hunter, it’s easier for them to kill 2 birds in MO then it is for them to kill 2 in Alabama.

There’s a reason a lot of hunters, especially newer hunters travel to places like Missouri from places like Alabama. I remember my early days when I struggled to kill a bird anywhere, when I went to places like Missouri or Tennessee or out west it was easy. I think killing 5 or even over 2 is hard for probably 50% of turkey hunters. Just my belief

I think the numbers are off for sure, just not by 70%

What makes a turkey that lives Missouri easier to kill than a turkey that lives in Alabama? Serious question. I have always wondered stuff like that. Just more birds? Habitat that is more conducive to calling?

That's easy, the level of their education

Leaving for MO in the morning for the first time. I will try to give my honest opinion in about a week. My ballpark guesses going in are terrain and education level.

Birds in Alabama been hunted hard atleast in the black belt in most areas since 80s - other states have been behind in hunting pressure - pressure passed down from generation to generation

In general birds in other states been lot easier - Missouri and Illinois and KS were lot easier for me - but I hav had non easy birds in KS and Missouri - fooling w one lot and not killing him will make birds more difficult - hens especially if they are experience (keen on taking toms away from competition) can make it hard

Missouri had so many more birds - I heard over 20 one morning - I had hunts when they gobble till 10:30 - I can remember when that happened to me in Bama. I never had one make it to 8 gobbling this year - or hardly 7:30. My spots are so bad now - think I worked 4 birds on land that was not my neighbors all year and I hunted a ton. Lot of guys here likely may hear 3-4 in a morning - u do that - u gone kill birds

In general - your Mirriams are more stupid - Eastern and Oceola supposed to be more difficult - fresh or unhunted birds are great to fool w

Bama birds been hammered since the mid 60's at least. I hunted Sumpter mid 60's, there were a good number of turkey hunters then. Same for Hollins WMA mid 70's.

If you can kill deer and turkey in Alabama then you can do it anywhere.

Hunting birds in the Midwest and western states is far easier due to the fact they don’t have every landowner with 40 acres hunting them 7 days a week. The amount of pressure increase I’ve seen in AL over the last 20 years is incomprehensible. I sat down to call to and attempt to kill 5 turkeys this season on private land. I also went with a friend to his property and heard several birds. Called in two but couldn’t make it happen due to them seeing something they didn’t like. Four of those other turkeys had someone else calling to them from either neighboring properties or the property I was hunting. One guy was 100% trespassing 1/4 mile or farther from the line and a few others were pushing it bad close. The one time I went to public land I had someone drive in on top of me in a UTV going to a bird I was already set up on. Now my point is this. People are willing to go to whatever costs necessary to hunt every bird they hear. Don’t matter the consequences. Don’t matter where he’s at. Just go get him. Most of these hunts were on weekday mornings. So weekends are now not the only time pressure is high. It’s 7 days a week. I remember in the early 2000s hearing 10-15 gobblers in a good weekend hunt. Hearing 4-5 a morning was pretty common. You rarely saw any other turkey hunters. Now I reckon turkey hunting is the newest fad. Everybody does it. Fewer birds to hunt and more people hunting them equals education and tougher to kill. They get harassed to death from sunup to sun down. I’ve hunted in OK, NE and KS on public land during the week and I recall seeing 3-4 other hunters in all three states the entire time. You can’t drive down a public road on public land here without seeing a truck at every pulloff nearly every day. I don’t fault people for wanting to kill turkeys. Heck it’s great. That’s why I’m out there doing it too. But the pressure is becoming too much for it to be enjoyable.

That is what I always heard for years Fred about killin here u can do it anywhere and turkey hunting has just gotten more and more popular