Posted on the DCNR's Facebook page this morning...and not adding them to end of season, just shortening it by 22%...

Probably looking for justification to shorten or delay the season for the whole state.

I agree "delayed" 10 days to me means it should be the same length of season. Atleast have some balls and say the first 10'days are canceled.

That's old news.

Really? The post was from like 930 this morning.

I saw it several days ago. A buddy and I were joking about all the people who may get a surprise on “opening “ day. CD.

Yep. The maps have been out a long time. The rules are on the back of the map. That's why you're supposed to sign the map.

Post the link

Given the serious issues with declining populations here and the Southeast, reducing the bag limit to three, mandatory tagging on the birds (create your own tag) and reporting via GameCheck, and shortening the season by 10 days wouldn't bother me a bit.

THREE BIRD LIMIT?? WTH ya talking bout boy?????

Clem, what are some of the factors you think are responsible for the decline?

Is this a factual research based biological plan? Can you post a link?

The percentage of hunters that shoot birds 4 and 5 has to be really low as is. If they were to lower the limit most would just take others hunting once they hit 3, making the drop pointless.

The ones that just shoot 3 are more than made up for by the killers who shoot 8 or 9. Just saying. Limits only apply to honest hunters anyway.

Honest turkey hunters. That got to be an oxymoron.

So what exactly are you trying to say here?

Lol

There's no such thing.

Some kind of avian disease.
Some kind of pesticide or combo of them.
Cyclical reproduction and recruitment (getting poults to age 2+)
Predation on poults in down cycle periods - partly due to a decline in trapping and predator hunting in general (raccoons, bobcats, possums, hogs, coyotes)
The people who kill 8 or 9 birds in a season in their state (over the limit)

Possibly a combination of all of those, or combo of some of them.

We've had posts/threads in this forum with good turkey hunters talking about how they're not seeing birds. Not that they're not having bad seasons, but legitimately not seeing and hearing as many birds as in the past. State biologists in the Southeast have been discussing and looking at this for several years and, to my knowledge, cannot pinpoint one specific problem as "Yep, that seems to be it."

Perhaps it's just a long-term cycle. Dunno. But something's going on.

I had lunch today with a friend from Arkansas who said they're seeing similar issues there. Still killing birds but a lot of hunters are puzzled at what they believe is a problem, and it's perplexing.

Additionally, doing what the DCNR is doing with this reduction on WMAs is better IMO than a blanket deal statewide. They control the WMAs and can use the data and info from them as a gauge of what's going on.

We say that about deer, right? "Do this on WMAs but not on my land." So, that's what they're doing.

Sucks for the public land guy, though, and I get that.