Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk ALTurkey Talk -- Beards and Spurs True turkey kill totals

Numbers were off by 10 due to my mistake. Counting the 3 on last post, total should be 314.

Killed 2 saw 1 die.

Total 317.

Here is what these numbers divulge:
74 turkey hunters killed 214 birds and saw an additional 164 die
These 74 people generated 17 limits for 22% of the hunters killing a limit
However, only 64 people actually killed so that is 27% of the successful hunters killed a limit.
Total numbers is 2.9 birds per hunter and 3.3 birds killed per successful hunter.
An additional 2.2 birds per hunter were seen killed.

If we had an idea exactly how many turkey hunters there were, you could make some assumptions on how many were killed in AL, however, I would guess that the Aldeer turkey hunter success rate is significantly higher than the average AL turkey hunter!

It's amazing what a little statistics can do. I bet if you did a random sample of all licensed hunters and paid them $25 to answer a few questions, you could have reliable data for the state for much cheaper than game check.

There has been a random sample of all licensed hunters for decades, and they do have reliable data on the AL harvest. Look on the dcnr web site and you can see the harvest records all the way back into the 60s. And you are right, its miles cheaper than game check, and they don't have to pay $25. Its also miles more accurate than game check will be for many years. Too many people are gonna refuse to participate in any mandatory game check and skew the data. The random sample they already do is actually more accurate.

>>>>however, I would guess that the Aldeer turkey hunter success rate is significantly higher than the average AL turkey hunter!<<<<

Can't believe you typed that! Come on, you KNOW that the average aldeer turkey forum poster kills more than the average AL hunter. We are the nut cases. The average hunter went opening day and a couple more times and has long since forgotten about turkey hunting.

I would like to see county by county kills, and even parts of the county if it were ever possible, but never going to happen. Southern counties are 10-20 times better than the north. And certain parts of the north and northwestern counties do not have turkeys nor turkey season.

I wonder how many of those limits and successful hunters came from counties south of I-20?

Set up the survey thread n I'll post to it!

Ask and ye shall receive!

Scroll down to page 18 for county harvest numbers:

http://outdooralabama.com/research-mgmt/publications/Compiled%20Survey%202012-2013.pdf

They tell you that they don't have enough data for these numbers to be all that reliable by county, but the graph looks about like I would have expected.

And if you look back over the years - it only goes back to 1972 and not the 60s as I said earlier - you will see that the average hunter kills one turkey year after year.

Colbert and Jackson have the highest harvest.

I would guess that the Aldeer turkey hunter success rate is significantly higher than the average AL turkey hunter! [/quote]

I would have to disagree!The best turkey hunters I know and most of the ones I know of and hunt with have never even thought about visiting aldeer and kill a lot of birds each year!

I would have to disagree!The best turkey hunters I know and most of the ones I know of and hunt with have never even thought about visiting aldeer and kill a lot of birds each year! [/quote]

I know some good turkey hunters that don't post on aldeer, but I know lots of casual turkey hunters that don't either. There are 2 turkey hunters in my church besides me. One of them killed a turkey this past season, the first he's gotten in several years. The other didn't score. Its all anecdotal information when we just look at the narrow group of people that make up our own acquaintances.

Gobbler's poll is showing the average aldeer hunter killed 2.9 turkeys. The hunter survey shows that the average AL hunter has killed .8 for 3 of the previous 4 years.

I see what you're saying PCP, I just don't put much faith in the survey numbers.

It really surprises me that Colbert is that high! It doesn't surprise me that Jackson is, because it is the only place north of Birmingham worth driving to hunt.

Colbert County I believe has an April 1-30th season doesn't it? (I am to lazy to look it up) I do know that Freedom Hills is for sure April 1-30th. Also, I can not imagine Morgan county having 500 turkeys, much less 500 turkeys killed! They have like a 5 day season and only a small portion of county. Most of Limestone, Lauderdale, Lawrence, and Madison do have open turkey season, but still not many birds. And look just next door to these counties, Jackson and Colbert, are number 1 and 2.

Jackson county also has the huge hunter population because so close Huntsville and Decatur. I guess Colbert could be getting the many hunters from Florence and Decatur? Maybe Colbert and Jackson win because they are the only places in the northern of the state that have birds, so everybody flocks to hunt them?

I guess the reason why the southern counties did not win the Harvest estimates would be lack of hunters.

In my experience, all of those little southern counties with a low population of people have a much greater population of turkeys. I could go on and on, but some of my favorite counties to hunt turkeys are Chambers, Lee, Bullock, MACON, Clarke, Greene, Tallapoosa, Coosa, Coffee, and pretty much everything South of 20(minus parts of Jefferson and Tuscaloosa)

I wouldn't put too much faith in the county numbers; the sample sizes are too small, and the study authors acknowledge that. They wouldn't ever estimate Talladega county because the sample size was too small.

But for the overall statewide harvest, they state a 9.4% standard error. They estimate a harvest of 45,301, so there is an extremely high % chance that the harvest was somewhere between 41,050 and 49,552. I'm not sure what their level of reliability is, but its close enough for identifying harvest trends and setting seasons and limits.

One flaw in the hunter survey is that it doesn't measure the kill by unlicensed hunters - those over 65 and under 16. And of course, it doesn't measure the illegal kill. If somebody killed more than 5, they likely threw away the survey.

But random sampling is used in every branch of science. I know of no reason to think this instrument isn't valid within the limits they state.