I've been curious about this all along, but why jump from 5 to 3 bird limit? What happened to 4?
Also, I believe most on here agree a decoy ban would solve alot of these 'problems'. Why not ban decoys for adults, but allow them for youth weekend or if a youth hunter is present? Easily enforceable, allows kids to get hooked on it by having success, takes away an adult crutch. Just a thought.
If there really is a problem with dominant birds being killed too early in the season and it actually resulting in lowered poult production, then I agree with you that a decoy ban would do far more to solving the problem than any other action. Now, let me say first, that I am more convinced than ever that there is absolutely zero evidence that gobbler harvest is affecting poult production. You can be sure that if they had such evidence they would be walloping us over the head with it every day. They don't have it, and in fact all attempts so far to find such evidence have gone the wrong way for them - it just shows that hunting doesn't make any difference.
They say that the research shows that the dominant gobblers are being killed early in the season, and I would think that they must have genuine evidence for repeating that so often. It is not my experience as a turkey hunter. Given the choice of hunting a dominant bird that has 10 hens with him, or hunting one who is all alone, I will hunt the lone gobbler every time. A gobbler that is henned up like that is extremely difficult to call. If those turkeys are really being killed, I suspect that decoys and fans are the way it's being accomplished. Eliminate the decoys, and the dominant gobbler is far more likely to live until later in the season; that's when he becomes vulnerable to calling.
It would be fine with me to just eliminate decoys altogether, but maybe not allowing them until April 1 would be a more acceptable compromise.
All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.
