They just announced they suspending turkey season due to declining populations

I use to like to go hunt turkey there several years ago - hunted and killed there once on memorial day

It's the fall season ONLY.
for next spring they are going to a draw for out of state hunters.

Sounds like a smart choice

Definitely a smart decision, the few counties in Al should do the same

Kilt a bigun out there several years ago. Wind was howling.

We hunted in KS this year in an area where you couldn’t count all the gobbling birds a decade ago. I heard zero and saw one hen this year. Several years in drought has likely been the biggest contributor, but adjusting seasons due to environmental conditions is needed in my opinion.
Other areas we hunted had a few birds, but not like it once was.

Man i hope this dont mess up my plans for the spring! When and how do we put in for spring season OOS draw?

I don't believe the OOS draw has been announced yet. I'd rather see them do like Nebraska and just have fewer OOS tags but make then over the counter. Nebraska reduced the NR tags from 17,000 to 10,000 but still left them first come first serve. I think there were tags left right up to opening day.

Worse case scenario would be you have to buy a license to even be eligible for the lottery. I've got family land in Kansa and have been going for years but I doubt that I would even apply for the draw if that's the case. Even if you get drawn, it's only go to be for one bird. We're only 1.5 hours from Nebraska anyway, I may just stay at the farm in Kansas but drive up and hunt South Nebraska.

We went this spring for the 1st time. I dont have anything to compare to but the area we were in did not have a large population. I was disappointed in overall numbers. I feel like we have more Turkey in Winston Co than KS. We did both harvest birds thankfully. I wished it was better I would love to take one this fall with a bow when we go

It won't be long before Nebraska follows Kansas' lead I'm afraid. When I first started going out to Nebraska 13-14 years ago you could ride around and see 1000 gobblers in an afternoon and get all the addresses you wanted. They were everywhere. You can ride around now and count on one hand how many gobblers you see.

I know this has been discussed to no end but since it’s happening everywhere seems like something has either been added to feed or pesticide maybe that’s killing turkeys. Something universal that’s used everywhere kinda product or something. It started at a certain time so it has to be something like that maybe. I know a few folks that have big places and deep pockets that have stopped feeding period for deer or anything else. They will plant as usual. Sometimes I wonder could it be something that’s in seed for fields just throwing out stuff but something on a big scale that’s used all over the country I feel is at the root of it.

Hunting pressure
Nest predators
Habitat loss
Disease

To me these are the top contributors of the decline in turkeys.
Not in any particular order