You guys are just counting the honest hunters who report every bird. For every hunter who uses game check there’s 3 who never report anything for deer and turkey. More people are hunting turkey than ever before in Alabama and predation is on the rise in most counties due to lack of trapping and predator hunting.
If they are already outlaws, they aren’t going to magically start following the law. So no reason to count them. Use some logic man.
I am, logic says that unfortunately the honest folks have to account for the dishonest folks even if that means killing less. Dead turkeys killed by dishonest hunters still amount to dead turkeys. So you agree with a 5 bird limit?
I actually would like the limit to be 1 bird a day. Decoys go back to being outlawed, and a few other things.
Now let’s get back to that logic of yours....... the honest man should kill less because we have to account for the outlaws? So you are saying that saving those 405 birds that the honest man would not have killed last year, those 6 birds per county, will help with a decline in numbers? Really?
If you want to have a 3 bird limit, you’ve stated you have some land you manage for turkeys, so self impose your limit.
Chamberlain and others spout off all these theories as if they are fact. Here’s a fact for you, the only research we have on whether hunters killing gobblers affect the population is history. There is no research other than the success or lack of, across states with similar habitat and different season lengths, bag limits, and start dates. Across this broad spectrum of experiments, from Arkansas to Florida, we have years of data, some seasons are two weeks, some are 7, some limits are 1, some are 5, some come in later, some come in earlier. Want to know the only thing there is in common among all of them? A supposed decline in turkey numbers..... yet, populations in all states were stable or growing up until recently, despite harvest or seasons. Why would something that worked for 50 years, all the sudden not work?
I will never believe that hunter numbers are at an all time low, yet they are the reason that such a successful system suddenly quit working.
You will never convince me that harvesting gobblers affects future numbers, unless a transparent study is performed.
A self appointed “turkey doc’s” theories do not trump years of data and experiment through variations between states.
