Spot on! I don't see how they can come to that conclusion. I also don't see WHY they would put that in the conclusions of the study. The study didn't really address the issue and it seems "random" to me !!?? Somethings smelly. 66% of adult gobblers die each year (22 of 33). 24% of adult gobblers are shot each year (8 of 33). That leaves 14 gobblers (63% of dead gobblers) dead from, I assume, predation although they don't address predation directly. Wouldn't it make more sense to address the biggest leak in the bucket (63% of the deaths vs 36% of the deaths)? Not only that but of the 8 gobblers shot, how may were shot as the 4th or 5th turkeys in someones limit? Seems like that would have been easy to find out and would DIRECTLY answer whether reducing the limit would make a difference and to what percent.

"leak in the bucket" ... whew, haven't heard that in a while.

But yes, why not address that and whether reducing the limit would matter instead of a wholesale "Lower it! It will help! Do something!" approach.

If South Carolina is overrun with turkeys in another 3-4-5 years after lowering the limit then I'll believe it. Otherwise it's just something to try, similar to banning deer urine because of CWD - nothing has been 100 percent proven on that, either. Right?

Speaking of pee, is mature gobbler urine better for early season turkey scrapes or does hen urine work best?

Leak in the bucket.... Corky, is that you?

Spot on. I was actually having a discussion about this very thing with PCP this morning. There ain’t a turkey decline in places that folks BUST THEIR ASSES. Trapping/killing predators is WORK.

Someone wants to gripe about how their turkey numbers have declined..my first question is “how many predators are you killing each year?”

Folks that have good turkey populations manage the habitat. They manage predators. And they manage their trigger fingers.

Umm squeaky. GA is to the east.

Keep the 45 day season

Keep the bag limit

Outlaw Decoys ( except youth season)

Outlaw blinds (except youth season)

Then the population will flourish.

It's a 47 day season currently.

Ever since the squealin hen was introduced...... well it's been downhill on the population

Yes....yes that is correct. I get so worked up about this foolishness I don’t know which way is up or down and in this case east and west. Hell Mississippi ain’t much different either with similar season and bag limit as to what’s is will be coming our way.

You're correct on that too. Ain't promising

“Although likely to stimulate negative feedback from stakeholders in the short term, making harvest regulations more conservative by reducing the season length or bag limit of the spring turkey season may improve adult male survival. Hunters would experience a reduction in the time they have to hunt, and the number of turkeys they could harvest, but this would increase the number of turkeys available to be hunted. Greater subadult survival facilitated by these harvest regulations may lead to high recruitment into the adult age class and more high-quality hunting opportunities.”

His whole premise is based on the idea that turkey population is a zero sum game and its up to him to decide how to divide them up. It ain't so. The more restrictions they place on hunting, the less landowners are gonna do to produce turkeys. He may think that he can divide the pie in a fairer way, but he doesn't seem to have a clue that the pie is going to be a lot smaller.

A chufa patch is just one example of habitat improvement that is done entirely for turkeys. I'm sure chufas are grown in states other than AL, but I've never seen one. People don't have the same level of interest in other states as we do, because they don't have the same opportunity that we do. Its similar to liberal states raising taxes even higher and then finding out they don't collect near as much as estimated - people move out when taxes become unbearable. In this case, the turkeys won't move out; they just won't never exist.

I have done a little more analysis of his paper and that will be distributed to the appropriate personnel in the near future. However, we need to remember who "he" is that wrote the paper. A young, aspiring biologist and this is probably his first real research paper as well as his first research. He is being "directed" in his thoughts on the process as well as the results - kinda like a puppet. We should look closely at his advisers as well as his funders. I feel bad picking on him - I was there once. Grand, Ditchkoff and Miller are his advisors. Do they maybe have an agenda? I know they have an opinion.

Thanks, that's all good info to know.

And do away with youth season, Just take your kids with you when you hunt.

Add the use of chicken litter to the list of things to outlaw as well!! I’ve seen first hand what the use will do to a turkey population.

You can bet the farm they have an agenda.
Not the least of which being money.

Yawn. I can't believe people still hunt turkeys that don't gobble.

I have personally laid eyes on 2 turkeys on my property over the last two years up until this summer. Last year I "planted" soybeans in a plot in early season that a turkey never stepped foot in even though I heard hens roosting maybe 400 yards outside the field.

This summer I've seen over 20 turkeys on several occasions, mostly young turkeys hatched this year. The difference ? We hammered the coons and possums last year, removing a combined total of 77 nest predators on my property and the surrounding land owner. We are at 38 for this year since the end of turkey season but really done in the last 10 days.

I trap my neighbors 2700 acres for free because if he has plenty of turkeys, I have turkeys.

A lot of that 2700 acre tract is thinned pines that is burned. Ideal turkey habitat. The rest is a mixture of river bottom and some clearcut. On the east side where there are beautiful thinned pine stands there is little to no turkey sign. But, it does join a large farm that has cattle and row cropping operations. I know they routinely apply litter to the pastures and have heard that they do not have a good turkey population.

I know a lot of people advocate burning in April and May saying any nesting activities disturbed will be offset by the habitat improvement. But, will the hen lay another clutch or 10-12 eggs or just 4-6 eggs? Why reduce the odds of a successful hatch when you can wait a few weeks before lighting that fire?

If the state was serious about increasing the turkey situation they would 1) encourage more trapping 2) limit nesting season burning 3) look into the chicken litter issue.

K bush done learned the power of a steel trap sounds like

Chicken litter, habitat destructive timber practices and a booming predator population are all factors that are reducing our states turkey population!

Chickens = Big business and money in the pockets so that isn't going to be addressed!

Timber = Big business and money in the pockets so that isn't going to be addressed!

Predators= Anything that offers any type of relief cost money therefore it isn't going to be addressed!

Hunters who manage their properties at their own expense are rewarded with lower bag limits and shorter seasons!

See! It all makes perfect sense!