I don’t usually post but I’m going to chime in here. I’m 36 and have been turkey hunting since I was old enough to tote a shotgun. Turkey hunters have been killing over the limit as long as there has been turkey hunting so nothing new there. I don’t believe it’s a big mystery why turkey populations are in decline. Predator numbers are through the roof, habitat is going away at a high rate, and the amount of people who hunt turkey is as high as I have ever seen. So right off the bat numbers in my mind should be in decline. Now add the legalization of decoys, and the onset of the tech age of hunting with trail cameras that not only take photos and scouts for you, but will send live pics to your phone.
Now take all that into consideration and add a whole new group of “hunter”, who has no knowledge of how to kill a turkey or respect for his quarry, but he’s got a shotgun and pics of four toms in his deer plot so he goes and slips in his shooting house and kills him a turkey. Except he might not kill just one he may see how many he can kill before they get away. He don’t worry about the limit cause he really just wanted to post his pic on Facebook with a bird and won’t go back hunting unless he gets one back on cam in one of his plots.