North40R is dead on. I'm going to forewarn y'all that this is a long rant so I don't blame any of y'all for ignoring my unsolicited opinions! My Father started taking me turkey hunting since I was old enough to walk. Back in those days we never deer hunted and I grew up fall and spring turkey hunting. Fast forward 30 plus years and I am still consumed with everything turkey and the people who know me can attest to that. I'm lucky enough to be able to spend most mornings in the spring woods and have noticed several things over the years. I also hunt several other states each spring and have some experience in comparing their current situations to ours. There's several others on this forum who have much more experience than myself but through conversation seem to notice some of the same things I'm observing. I have these type of discussions with several close friends who are also avid turkey hunters and these are some of the things we have been discussing.

1) Timber Management Practices- No doubt I think this is probably the main concern and my forester friends who are avid turkey hunters agree. The reason is two fold imo. First is lack of diverse habitat through large tracts of pine monoculture and new forestry practices associated with this. This is especially evident in certain regions of South Alabama and especially the Western and SW portions of the state. There are much less mass producing hardwoods forests scattered and many more areas of large scale corporate timber land. I hunt different types of land across the state and the properties that have a high diversity of high quality turkey habitat consistently hold a higher density of turkeys that seem to roam much less than other areas with less desirable habitat. Second, not only are these types of habitats less conducive to turkeys but in turn are more conducive to predators. So now we are dealing with habitats requiring turkeys to to move longer distances to find suitable habitat, and in turn hold more predators. I don't care what ppl say about how coyotes don't affect turkeys, From my experience and the ppl I know who raise turkeys, coyotes are an absolute problem for hens when they are sitting on the nest. When those hens are sitting they are very vulnerable and if a coyote gets a hen on the next he is also getting all the eggs. Due to the current state of fur prices and boom of predators, unless ppl take on trapping themselves the predators are likely to continue to be a concern.

2) Hunter Pressure- When I started turkey hunting it was nothing to get permission to turkey hunt. We were almost viewed as outcasts who would rather hunt a turkey than a deer. Boy has that changed over the years! As most of you can probably attest it is almost impossible to get turkey rights to a place anymore. People have gotten so passionate about turkey hunting the idea of subleasing turkey rights has become almost non negotiable. Most of the hunting clubs that used to be primarily composed of deer hunters are now likely to have at least 50% of the membership who turkey hunt. Because of this they are unwilling to lease out rights and in turn now you have a much higher turkey hunter density on a tract of land. Although I agree with the science that if you have successful poult production gobbler harvest shouldn't matter, but now with the use of extremely realistic decoys, ground blinds, and trail cams it's not very difficult for the average guy to go out and shoot a couple turkeys regardless of experience or calling ability. Additionally, a piece of property can hunt many more deer hunters than turkey hunters. A 2,000 acre tract of land can be hunted pretty quickly by just one or two guys turkey hunting and I'm seeing properties like this with 8-10 guys trying to hunt. I can't tell you how many times I've talked to people who will say "yea I've killed a couple on my place that only I can hunt and I'm done hunting there " to go on and say "But I'm going down to the club and I'm going to kill all I can because I know if I don't the other guys will". I hear this same type of conversation on public lands as well. Because our state has very liberal bag limits those numbers can add up very quickly with the increased amount of hunters in the woods on the properties that don't regulate the amount of turkeys killed. For some reason deer management seems to be all the rage today with well managed lands limiting deer harvest through age and sex restrictions. I can't tell you how many leased properties have rules that limit buck and doe harvests although the state regulations allow a much higher harvest. They do this because they know there's only a finite number of deer and especially mature deer on the property. In order to sustain quality harvest over the years they must limit deer harvest according the limitations of the property. However, most of these properties seem to have a far less strict approach on turkey management on an animal that imo is far more susceptible to outside factors than deer. I again go on to say I am fine with the limits in place with the state but people need to understand that you 8 other hunters cannot kill their 5 turkeys on the same 2500 acre tract, it's just not sustainable. The turkey limits in place are fine as long as over harvest isn't occurring on site specific properties. No property is created equally and harvest regulations need to be regulated on a per property basis. The government cannot do this (except maybe on specific public lands with the proper data) but until people begin to manage turkey harvest on a per property basis I think we will always be concerned with turkey numbers.

I know I've rambled on forever and most of you won't read or give a crap about anything I have to say but I'm very passionate about turkeys and turkey hunting. I love the turkey hunting culture our state has and I think a reason we have this culture is due to our long season and liberal bag limits. However, I'm afraid that due to things out of our control on a large scale (timber management, ag practices, predators) unless we start hunting these birds with a more conservation minded approach it is inevitable that the state will eventually shorten the season and limits in order to try and mitigate declining numbers.