We are the biggest predator by far.
What technology has done to turkey hunting/killing is to me the biggest problem, but most folks don't want to hear that. They want to blame on it everything else. In my mind we wouldn't be having to deal with lowered bag limits and time afield if it wasn't due to technology and the social media look at me ordeal.
Question is what can be done...? I have no clue other than at least what Alabama has done in terms of decoy limitations. Another big step would be getting rid of corn feeders.

[quote=cartervj]Habitat is always key



Because we don't shoot hens. Shooting gobblers has near to zero effect on turkey populations in every area I've hunted in Alabama.

Because we don't shoot hens. Shooting gobblers has near to zero effect on turkey populations in every area I've hunted in Alabama.

Yep……Frankie is right…….Hunters arent anywhere even close to being the top predator…….The number of birds being taken by hunters comes from the 5% that’s left over after everything else takes their share…..Nest predation takes 75-80% and then avian predators and bobcats, etc start thinning out what does hatch. By the time a hunter ever pulls the trigger on a grown gobbler, other critters have already taken out exponentially more turkeys than the one he’s killing

Who says. Hunters?

That’s a bit jaded wouldn’t you say.

Last research papers I was reading on whitetail and antler expression. They were studying social hierarchy and so forth. Interesting discussions on it and how submissive or otherwise may or may not occur due to changes in the hierarchy.

I remember when I was growing up, the chickens had a pecking order until something changed. I was always intrigued by this. I’ve always felt turkeys are no different.

There is an effect but how significant is questionable.

Then again one talk about the incidental hen killings. Seems to be more common that I thought.
I do bet that one hurts the population.

I haven’t had chickens in years but hear that you gotta have at least one rooster to make the hens lay. If there is not enough gobblers in the population will some hens therefore not participate? I do t know but wonder.
Like my friends pic. That gobbler has 9 hens now, back in March when he showed up he had three. Where’d they come from. David says he’s breeding them all. So if they’re laying and go to nest will the later hatches be less successful? I’ve always heard that to be the case.

Once again it’s kinda laughable that hunters say hunters killing gobblers have no effect on the population.
Of course that’s what they’d say. You may be spot on, but at least explore that
Personally I think there is a point of too many but I have no idea what that number is.

I disagree that it's "laughable" that hunters say that. I have said that because it was the message put out by the wildlife biologists that I had heard all of my life. I guess I first heard it in 8th grade Ag class in 1967. It was very much reinforced by my time in Ag school at Auburn in the early 70s. But most of all it was reinforced by my own experience; I never saw the slightest evidence that the number of gobblers killed off the farm had any impact on poult production.

When they have documentation of a single gobbler breeding over 20 hens in a single day, common sense says it doesn't take a lot of gobblers to produce the next crop. And that was the "science" until Chamberlain came along with his FB page and a theory that still is just a theory. That hasn't stopped them from using it to destroy turkey hunting.

You "think" there is a point of too many being killed, but have no idea what it is. I think there is a point too, on places with very few turkeys. I have always thought that and I've always said to simply close the season in those places. That was the way the dcnr did it for decades, before they started managing by a theory.

I'm still shocked that you have 74 turkeys in a winter flock and aren't deliriously happy. I would be.

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 simply have more respect for the wild turkey than most people that hunt them.

Not picking too much here - but if you believe humans are the “biggest predator by far” - then you may need a reset on this self righteous respect.

Not picking too much here - but if you believe humans are the “biggest predator by far” - then you may need a reset on this self righteous respect.

We are the biggest predator by far.
What technology has done to turkey hunting/killing is to me the biggest problem, but most folks don't want to hear that. They want to blame on it everything else. In my mind we wouldn't be having to deal with lowered bag limits and time afield if it wasn't due to technology and the social media look at me ordeal.
Question is what can be done...? I have no clue other than at least what Alabama has done in terms of decoy limitations. Another big step would be getting rid of corn feeders.

I disagree,

If gobblers die before hens are breed then yes there is a very big effect.

On FB, I think the Alabama Turkey hunters group was a post about studies being conducted and so far no nesting success. I think each nest had a camera on it and all were lost. Don’t recall if it was over the last few years or just this year. I just kinda glanced over it. Seems I read somewhere else some of the nest hatched but didn’t survive.

I wondered if human presence helped account for the failure rate.

Maybe someone with connections has access to the studies.