To start with I have not read all the post, just skipped around. I agree with gobbler and Fred. Corn is not the issue. TX feeds who knows how many tons of corn every year and they are still covered up with turkeys. I also agree that it is largely due to weather. Around 2005-2007 where I hunted was covered up with turkeys, killed my limit every year and helped folks kill a few of theirs, as well. Then we had a few cold wet springs and all around pissy weather for turkeys to nest. Guess what happened over then next few years? Ruff turkey hunting. The only birds that where being killed were 4-5 year olds, and not a lot of them. All the jakes, two and three year olds had all but died over the last three years. Then guess what happened? You got it, good weather and the turkey population was back on the rise. Where I hunt now in north Bama we have more turkeys now than we have EVER had.This year seems to be about average for young turkeys. With all that being said a turkey population can go from low numbers to great numbers in just 2-3 years. It depends on the weather. Also there use to be many, many, many more trappers than there are now days. If we saw coon hides start bringing $20-25 per hide like they once did I bet the turkey population would sky rocket. Example: I have been hunting in MO for 15v years or more now. When we first started hunting up there it was nothing to see 40-50 bird flocks. One afternoon I saw over 150 birds cross the filed I was hunting going to roost. At that time you were not allowed to kill bobcats. Over the next few years the bobcat population went through the roof, as well as, the coyote population! We were seeing a lot of cats! Guess what happened next? You got it the turkey population hit rock bottom. I was lucky if I saw 5-6 birds in a flock. They would fly and land out in the middle of those big fields, feed and look scared all day. I even saw bald eagles after them(lot of eagles up there as well). One would fly over and all the turkeys would hit the cedars where all the bobcats are. We cant control the weather but we can "help" control the predators. Oh by the way all those fields(and I am talking thousands and thousand of acears) have always been covered in corn, when the p population was up or down. When the state of MO started letting folks start trapping bobcats the turkey population started to climb again plus there has been better weather in the spring for the last few years. So boys start trapping or coon hunting with hounds and pray for good weather in the spring. Not a expert just some things I have paid attention to over the years. Carry on its time for bed.