That, and I bet it goes the other way too.

Insert rich guy who spent the night at lodge and rides his crew Li-ion Polaris EV to his favorite spot in the middle of his 3,000 acres. He and his buddy double up at day break, ride back to the house, clean turkeys and eat a breakfast and never even thought about it

My grandad (passed away) wouldn’t register a deer just out of principle. He didn’t consider it any of their business

Lots of reasons for low numbers

Yeah, reckon why they did that? Oh wait, they didn’t.........

Lol

I think you're definitely right that low reporting goes both ways. And I get that overall reporting rates are low in the state. However, I'm still wondering if there is enough variability in these factors among counties to produce differential reporting rates as this has been suggested by others in this thread. If reporting is uniformly low across the state, then then the reported harvest would still be valuable for relative harvests.

I guess I'm WRONG about that, ok. I could've sworn tho....... sorry. Carry on.

they raised it to six for several years then back to five.

I’d say the opposite I think numbers are on the rise. More people improving turkey habitat, planting chufa and milo ect. Some folks are simply getting out turkeyed andnthink nimbers are down.

Our place was like this when we got it. There were turkeys everywhere. We would see large groups of birds and as far as the first couple weeks of April, there would be turkeys gobbling everywhere. We wouldn't know which gobblers to try to set up on sometimes. The most gobblers killed on our 1k acres in a spring was 4. The last season we had decent numbers, we left 4 different gobblers gobbling because we had to pack up and leave. The next season which would have been the spring of 2017, we had 1 gobbler gobble on our place while we were hunting. Same last season. We just went and listened to him gobble in the morning. We had decided we weren't going to even bother him. I have a couple invites to hunt some property in Clark co. this spring. I just don't think we will have any turkeys again this spring. I hope I'm wrong.

Corn. Corn......excuse me, supplemental feeding is what has happened. And corn is serious bidness in Bama just like the cald. If you arent supplementally feeding during deer season, that is exactly what happened to your birds. This new supplemental feeding law opened pandoras box. There was always a lot of corn in the woods in alabama but it's gotten ridiculous now with the new 100 yds out of site rule. If you're not doing it, your birds are probably baited off of you by a neighbor two or three properties away.

That's not our problem. Most of our neighbors are older folks that don't deer hunt much anymore but they all have sup. feeders out year around and they are always complaining to us about how they aren't getting any turkeys coming to the feeders anymore. They noticed they were getting less and less pics of turkeys at the feeders 3yrs ago. There was some big pasture down the rd from our place that we used to park and watch turkeys in that pasture almost everytime we went into town. Haven't seen a turkey there in 2 spring and none at all this deer season. It's very concerning.

It seems A lot of folks agree the decline in gobblers has come over the last 15 yrs. This spring will be the 15 th anniversary of being able to use decoys”fanning “. You’d be surprised how many folks that’s their only strategy just like they watch on all the hunting shows.Its about the only thing I know of that changed at almost the same time.

I read an article yesterday that said North Carolina NWTF has a program going on with Duke Power to stop bush hogging powerlines and right of ways during the nesting and hatching season. Supposedly they had data that alot of nests were being destroyed because the bush hogs were wiping them out. Something about the hens nesting in the powerlines because it was preferred nesting cover.

The NWTF guy said it had promising results. They were studying it against some pheasant study in the midwest where those nests were being destroyed.

I don't know how much of an impact that would have on land without power lines and gas lines, but it sounded interesting. I hunt with some guys in north Chambers county that have some jam up land and I mean it's nice habitat, plenty for birds to eat and nest. Good hardwoods and thinned pines like you don't see much anymore. Even on their place something has been off the last 3 years and it isn't hunting pressure. We used to hear 5 to 8 birds every morning, and now it's 2 or 3 at best. I don't think we can really pin point what's lowered the numbers, but I know that on my commute to work and trips all over Alabama and Oklahoma, there are a whole lot less turkeys everywhere. I can drive from my house to Lafayette AL and back 2 days in row during turkey season and see 1 or 2 birds no matter which route I take. It's a mystery as to where they are or what happened.

I think ol WB is on the right track. Land managers who create habitat, trap, burn, ect and provide for turkeys have plenty of birds. In fact I'd say most reports I've heard from this Fall are as positive as I've heard in several years. I think we had a great hatch last year and the next couple of years of hunting should be great.

Reducing the limit and shortening the season isn't going to do a thing to help turkey populations. The most important contributing factor to turkey numbers is nesting success and hatch rates. Unfortunately, the most important factor to successful hatches is weather, and that's out of our control. Controlling nest robbers and providing nesting areas on the other hand are entirely in the land managers control. If you aren't doing your part to eradicate them and provide habitat, dont complain about your lack of turkeys.

And lots and lots and lots of immature (and mature) pine stands that are essentially large scale briar patches that a turkey couldn't see beyond 10 ft from all directions.

I'll add to this...two years ago on a particular prop I hunt we had 3 gobblers and about 12 or so hens, and I killed one of the gobblers. Last year, we only had 1 gobbler, 4 jakes, and only 8 hens, and it was miserable the couple of times we hunted the place without killing a gobbler there. We decided to start trapping a little and managed to only get 6/7 coons and opossums. I don't know how much effect the little trapping had, but it seems like it may have saved one nest because this year, we have 5 gobblers and 18 hens at least! More turkeys than they have ever seen on this property. Let me add that this property has literally everything you can ask in terms of habitat from mature hardwoods, grown up cutover, mature pines, cattle pasture, creeks, pond, and a lake, so there honestly should be even more birds than that on the 350 acres which is why we have began to hammer the nest predators this year with 15 dead and counting.

My neighbors and I are on a trapping regimen. It’s payed off so far

You’ve got a better count on your population than the US census bureau.

How the hell do you know how many hens (or gobblers) you have on 350 acres?

From cams, to the landowner being out there everyday and seeing the flocks come to the pasture/riding around...don't know exactly but definitely have seen a major jump from last year due to what I believe as a good hatch as well as possibly the trapping a little..

I'm not claiming to have an exact number of birds, but it's very easy to get a gauge of population numbers when birds are flocked up in the winter.

It isn’t real hard. I know I have 3-5 gobblers 12 hens and 3 jakes hanging around my 40 acres. How do I know? I’ve only had hundreds of pics a no telling how much time watching them this season.