Yeah but we know all of that dominant gobbler stuff that Sykes and Chamberlain try to shove down our throats is complete bullchit. Poor habitat management, increasing numbers of predators, and the timber industry do more damage to turkey numbers than hunters ever will.

A gobbling one. There’s no one size fits all in this. By the end of April turkeys around Montgomery are about done. Up in north Alabama I’m sure theres benefit to the may season. Season could probably start first of March around here.

A Jake can be hard to call in if he with hens - no I don’t shoot jakes - but Henned up is a kick in the nuts - lonely means he alone and looking = opportunity. I hav killed them with hens - killed one in TN w over 20 hens w a bow this year - but rather not hav to deal w henned up tom
Lonely = ideal - never found that this year

And they were killed just the same. Pre season hunters wins, honest hunter lost. And virtually zero enforcement to keep it from happening.

One that knows there are some hens out there that are ready for breeding but doesn’t know which one is ready yet.

Hell, I never cared if they gobbled or not . It was the , having one in my hands when I walked out.

I’m the same way buddy

I can live with the dates but quit taking days to hunt away from me. This 2 of 4 off the same wma and 1 the first 10 days are the laws that make mad.

If he dont ever gobble and u n woods and not huge open fields - he gonna be kind of hard to find - heck yea I care if he gobbles - 0 chance if he don’t if u can’t see him - gets like deer hunting and I only do that n deer season

I approve the message

i think they ought to start deer season on feb 10th thru march 30th. i mean we need to save the dominate bucks so all the does get bred. we know now thanks to chaberlin that a doe will not breed with a young buck. then start turkey season on april 1st thru may 15th so the hens will get bred. chamberlin will be so proud of my proposal.

And I’m just gonna say having season end on Mother’s Day is bull$hit too. They knew there would be very few people turkey hunting today. Just one final jab at the turkey hunter. I hope the CAB and Sykes are pleased with themselves

Arent they doing studies on the ability of different age group gobblers to be able to successfully breed and seeing if the clutch size is affected by the age/fertility of age group of gobblers? I thought I heard that and would like to see the data if anyone knows of such a study. That would certainly help justify or disprove the need for season date changes, but didnt the season used to start at the end of may for years and years anyway before they moved it up to the 15th, then added the youth weekend even earlier?

Ben the season started on March 20th and ran through April 25th for a very long time for many counties south. I believe counties further north ended April 30th. I do not know what the season dates were prior to those as they were before I started turkey hunting.

I guarantee that was never even a thought on their minds.

Another vote to change back, it,s hard to hunt the way the woods have shot up and heat and ticks in the last week.

Seems to me that they should get the evidence and then change the seasons based on that evidence. Instead, they changed the season and then looked for evidence to support it. They have already spent millions of dollars and 5 years on studies here in AL, looking for any evidence to support their theories, and found nothing they could use. They had to justify the changes on the "opinion of experts."

GA and AL both have been starting seasons later on several WMAs in the hopes that they could show higher poult production with a later season opener. But they found nothing. Zilch.

This isn't about science.

^^^^^^👍🏻👍🏻

I cast my pearls before swine on that ATH Alabama Turkey Hunters Facebook page. Some idiot responded about “grown me whining.”
My response was:

It ain’t whining. It’s saying we got a complete lack of leadership at the highest level in the Conservation Dept. You do realize March 20-April 30 served us well from the dark days when the state had hardly any turkeys, through the boom and into the current time? It’s the season framework we had for the longest.

And that WMA rule is an absolute travesty that only affects law-abiding hunters.

Ive posted on here a couple times about the Auburn project (primarily funded by AWF and TFT among others) that is ongoing to look at gobbler fertility. Hopefully MANY of the Aldeer members collected and submitted carcasses or testes to the project so that they can see how many, what proportion of and the timing of fertile gobblers in the harvested population
https://mossyoakgamekeeper.com/podcasts/?msclkid=706280e4cf3611ecb16b6c8e274a7cb4
listen to episode 90