For those of you who think gobbler harvest doesn't effect the population, what do you think would happen, if AL turned it's hunters loose for three consecutive seasons, in KS with a 5 bird limit. Serious question. I can already tell you the outcome would be devastating.
I think that AL's very liberal bag limit has provided the wrong perception to several generations of hunters who have come to think it doesn't matter. Kill as many as you want. Heck we have the highest population of any state in the country with the highest bag. Apparently we have done a great job convincing people that bag limits don't matter. We had a buck per day every day of the season for decades. Was that a good management practice? As populations and hunter desires change so will the regulations.
I do fully agree that the best way to change anything, if it's changed at all, is to push the season back or decrease the length.
According to the survey the last several years average harvest per hunter has remained at close to one per season. I don't have the information in front of me, but I promise to my name that I'm going to find out what percentage of people surveyed killed a limit. And that's all it will be. Only those surveyed. Also, I'd bet there are a lot of hunters you could add to the category if you included anyone who took 3 or more turkeys per year.
I know hunting pressure is far more than it used to be. Heck private land, IMO, is probably hunted harder than most public land, from what I have seen lately. I can drive around on private land and see more hunters than I'll check on a WMA hunt.
Keep another thing in mind. North AL is not what south AL is. Land is divided and broken into smaller ownerships, more development and disturbance, and a higher population of people. You south AL boys who are hunting several thousand contiguous acres have to realize that don't exist up here near as frequently as down there.
Matt, my statement really has nothing to do with how gobbler harvest affects the overall population. My point was that dropping the limit to 3 probably will have no impact on the scope of birds killed. But If you and the state want to push a lower limit, fine. Just present facts on how many people actually kill more than that as it stands. That is my biggest issue. Of course, killing gobblers does not help the population. Does it hurt it significantly? I don't think so, not in most cases. But if you could present a valid argument, I would certainly listen.
In central and north Alabama, I've seen a decline in the number of gobbling birds in the last few years. Simply taking public land as an example, south Alabama wmas have been much much easier for me to kill a bird on in the last few years. I think it is possible we have a big problem coming in the next few years, similar to what parts of Tennessee are experiencing. I just don't buy that reducing the limit by a bird or two will have a great impact.
