Its mind blowing to me that we are studying something like a dominant gobbler theory and making season date adjustments based on such all while the impact of corn on racoon populations is barely even mentioned much less being studied…..It makes it really hard to take the “process” seriously……..If we we’re really trying to figure out what’s impacting turkey populations then you would think this would be setting an alarm off like on a nuclear submarine.

That doesn't fit their narrative

$$$$$$$$

It goes back to the same thing I was talking about with deer and letting $$$ be the driving force…..I’m sure the truth is that no one wants to talk about how corn is inflating coon populations because that isnt good for the dollar……But if this is how we’re gonna operate, at some point we’re gonna look around and nothing we’re doing will make biological sense anymore……I mean dang it, if we’re trying to figure out why turkey populations are going down and we’re gonna ignore the fact that we’re supplementally feeding the hell out of their biggest nest raider…..then maybe we’re already reaching that point of absurdity. At some point folks gotta start saying “Heeeeey, wait a minute……

Listen to that podcast I posted and Dr Lashley talk about the impact human feeding had on other predator populations in some of the studies he looked up…..It wasn’t just a little bit…..It was 6 or 7 times as many…..Could you imagine if we’re creating 6-7 times as many coons with baiting all while acting like we cant figure out why the turkey population isnt what it used to be??......

CNC, somewhat related to feeding, and another contributor to excessive harvest in some places, is the fact that a LOT of turkeys are being killed with their wings dragging wheat or milo seeds. It blows my mind how many ground blinds I’ve seen lately with a seed pile within 20 yards and a cell camera. It don’t matter if the dominant gobbler theory is fact or fiction, if 50% of small landowners are hunting turkeys this way. A lot of the blame, IMO, lies with the precedent set by the agency by permitting bait for deer with a permit. “People aren’t differentiating the difference. It’s ok for deer, so it must be ok to do this too, even though they haven’t technically made it legal” mentality. Some of you who aren’t accustomed to land ownership patterns in north AL may not be able to see how this is so critical, but it’s not sustainable. I bet half the turkeys killed up here so far have been on bait.

Corn only bunches coons up at a feeder. It's not making them breed faster!

The amount of corn being put out is insane….There’s an estimated 235,000 deer hunters….I rarely ever track for someone not baiting but lets be conservative and say that 50,000 of those hunters put out 20 bags of corn each season…. …..That alone comes out to 50 million pounds ……How many extra coons does 50 million pounds of corn produce statewide??

Don’t get me wrong………I’m not really trying to bash the dominant gobbler theory…..Its the fact that we’re reaching that far down in the bucket to find something to blame things on when something as glaringly obvious as coons and corn is staring us right in the face……. At some point how can you even act like there’s a legitimate conversation about to be had about this other stuff when there’s an elephant in the room of that proportion that’s being ignored??......It’s like “Are you serious Clark?”

The way we’re going about it is probably the worst possible scenario too….We’re pouring it to them during the winter months when things are supposed to be the leanest….This fattens up the females causing them to produce more babies than what the land is actually supporting……BUT that’s not all…..We’re then yanking all of that feed from them on Feb 11……likely leaving a lot of hungry coons on the landscape scavenging for food just prior to turkey nesting season.

But meanwhile we're looking to see if the issue is possibly turkey t-levels…….C’mon man.

So if I don't feed the coons they want have sex?

I think his point is that by feeding raccoons they are unnaturally being congregated in areas that are also attracting turkeys. I’m pretty sure MSU released a study on nest success in relation to proximity of feeders a few years ago. I’ll try to find it.

If we supplementally feed coons then they'll produce more off-spring than they would have otherwise.

This also makes them easier to catch in my opinion. Also I hardly ever have turkeys in the spring in the same areas as during deer season. There's some but the majority move in the spring. Pastures, hayfields etc.

Hunting turkeys over bait is about as fagot and gay as it gets

Its the same as spotlighting deer and shooting

That falls on The freakin sorry arse hunter and not no freaking agency!! Horrible morals - like saying 1 plus 1 = 3. They freaking no bettr - they aint that stupid!! A#* whipping way to good for that trash!!

…..as well as the potential for higher winter survival rates…..Probably should have added that too.

You really think a coon has a hard time surviving a Alabama winter?

as with any animal population . more food more animals . they are heather , survival rates go up . it concentrate them around the food source. creates less computation. on and on and on .

dont take a study to figure this out .


coons are predators more food they have less ground they need less ground they need the more you gonna have . same with any predator .

yes no maybe but they a hell of a lot healthier with all that extra food .

Depends on how much competition for food is driving the amount of movement of each individual across space…….Coons that just spend all winter going back and forth short distances to corn feeders to make a living are gonna likely have lower mortality than ones that have to scavenge across large areas to meet their food needs…..Typically with most any specie the more something has to move and the further it has to travel…..the higher the mortality rates are gonna be…..We’re likely propping up much higher coon populations through Feb 11 and then sending that inflated population off onto the landscape to pillage and plunder during the early spring….I would imagine that the higher populations start exploiting other available food sources during this time period….It would only stand to reason that more coons exploiting resources in the spring would equate to more nests being raided.

I’m starting to think that TDog93 and 3%Outdoorsman are related.
TDog, how much does your Rottweiler weigh?

ask any guy that has been coon hunting for a long time about coons and corn . makes a big difference when people use corn for deer .

I feel like every turkey hunter should atleast run a couple dozen dog proofs every now and then. If you can make the time to hunt them then you should atleast make some time to help them