Anyone listen to the MeatEater podcast no 438. Around the 1:40 mark they discuss an experiment in TN where few counties were pushed 2 weeks and it made no difference. Did I hear that wrong?

They also seemed to breeze over it

Went the last weekend in April and it seemed to be over.

Yep from the last weekend of April in west Tennessee it’s over and too thick to hunt em. Our birds were ready the week before season when the big green up happened.

I concur the push in season will do little to nothing to increase the turkey population, if that’s what they said.

As for turkeys being done in TN in late April, I respectfully disagree with that (though I’m sure it varies a little by location). I had the best hunt last weekend (traditional birthday weekend hunt) I have had in a long, long time. Did my heart good; all of the jakes I got into last year up there made for loads of fun this year.

I saw two different groups of Jakes this year, 10 in one group and 6 in the other. Hopefully some good 2 yo next season

Yeah bunch of Jake’s on the places over here. At least on the properties I hunt, either the wheat is too tall for the birds or I was walking in vegetation to my chest earlier this week…it wasn’t like that the first two weeks of April

It ain't over until it's over. I watched 2 different strutters on 2 different properties yesterday. I heard 1 close to my house gobbling his head off about 2:30 yesterday.

I think the delay will get more hens bred and hopefully have more birds in the future. It will take more than a year to find out. The amount of bird being killed isn’t an issue unless you don’t replace them.

Haha here we go again… where’s the proof? They’ve been doing it in Arkansas for years and no improvement. Turkeys for Tomorrow just had prelim results that show no effects on delayed seasons.

Man it burns me up hearing yankees talk about turkey hunting. Cook a meal over a fire with a camera strapped to your head but please stfu about turkey hunting. It’s not the “poor man’s elk hunt” like they say

Tell us how ya really feel Reb….

That whole meateater crew has done to western big game hunting what these YouTubers have done to public land turkey hunting.

Now meateater is showing and talking more about turkey hunting… Bunch of damn Yankees.

They had a scientist on there that (if I heard correctly) said the delay was not effective per the study. They studied a 2 week delay in several counties before the state went to full 2 week delay. Over the study years, there was no change in nesting or survival between delayed county and control.

He seemed like a sharp guy. Maybe it was refreshing not hearing from Turkey Czar Chamberlain!

Turkeys are "poor man's Elk hunt"

I always kill more early and like early season the most

This year n TN at the place i go - all the guys always tag a turkey first day for many years - this year we had to go later - nobody tagged one first day and only one guy killed n 3 days - the turkeys were w hens and not near as stupid

Amd i guarantee u i will kill more n bama 3/15 to 3/25 than i ever will the rest of the season

Now their numbers may show no change - but in my 40 plus year experience where i hunt tells me this and its a more fun time to hunt early

Did they set the season back until the hens historically started nesting?

I hunt as far south in Tn as you can get. There are hens with poults right now. Those hens haven’t been playing the game in 35 days and we still have two weeks left.

Is that a yes or no for my question about Arkansas?

If a little of this study BS effort was put into predator control and some habitat management...

Screw a podcast, they need to quit pushing a pen and talking about this and that and get to work in the woods.

I've never seen more suicidal turkeys than I have this year in tennessee. I like it. Most of the ones griping are the ones who shoot winter flocked birds over a corn pile. Lawrence County has had absolutely stellar hatches the last 3 years. I hope it continues. The delay won't help in areas with even a decent population, it will help in those pockets with a couple male birds, and a dozen hens, where both male birds traditionally get killed the first day of season or juvenile and there isn't another male around for several miles. That's a very real scenario in alot of places.