Damn short season

[G-Man]

Well 7 gobblers under the,stand this am , 2 seperate flocks of hens and pouts around this past weekend. Season closed over 60 turkeys seen in 4 days. Why was it shortened again....ugh

[growalot]

It was shortened so the turkey could recoup... This bright idea  opposed to limiting it to toms only in the fall...no offense to anyone..I do not begrudge legal shot anything...but on viewing sites...more hens seemed to be pictured down than Toms

Great idea DEC way to go...I'm sure those Toms saved will hatch oodles of poults this spring

[landtracdeerhunter]

We'll, our numbers are down from what they were last year. Seen 7 hens Sunday, all huddled on a fall plowed field. Last fall, 17 were in the same area. I agree, a tom season or two would be the way. The DEC. has failed, once again, on turkey management program.

[Skillet]

Numbers are down around our place, too.

Sounds like you happen to have a couple large fall flocks in the area. Seems like a lot of birds, but it's probably just the condensed population of a pretty large surrounding area.

I'm with Grow. No reason to be shooting hens, even in the fall.

[G-Man]

I have way to many hens and success is all related to nesting and predators in spring, I have trappers here till feb ,with the stipuLatin they hit coon hard for 1st month, then can hit fox and coyote,

The season was shortened to give the people complaining about numbers feel good legislation, 1 hen in Fall is nothing,

they have no idea about how many fall hunters there are as tags for spring and fall are bought together, mostly as a guy who says well if I see one in the fall....

Sping weather, and nest raiders are the problem along with decreasing nesting habitat as fallow fields are put back into crop production and or grown up into timber vs tall grass and brush. We had a good hatch this year and numbers tripled. A hen laying 8 to 12 eggs will do that in a hurry ...

[growalot]

Well you have heard my rants on that so no argument to the preditors...We had 1 poult make it to fall...kid you not...thus my mentioning the lonely hen and her one poult a lot

[Skillet]

I don't think there's such a thing as having too many hens.

Edited November 3, 2015 by Skillet

[Pygmy]

I don't think there's such a thing as having too many hens.

Sure....Say that next spring when every gobbler you try to call has 6 hens with him....<<grin>>...

[G-Man]

Pygmy has it right , 10 to 1 hens to toms in the spring seems about average here, I always target a hen in the fall just for that reason

[Skillet]

I'd trade having a lonely tom to hunt, for a few seasons with a lot of poults being born.

[G-Man]

I'd trade having a lonely tom to hunt, for a few seasons with a lot of poults being born.

Poults are born every year, predators and pneumonia are the 2 largest mortality factors, 1 you can can't role the weather not so much, but if the hen can cover her chick's on the ground and keep them dry they will survive tought to do when being chased by fox and coyote, fisher and various raptors, predator control and habitat are your best friends in this endevor

[Skillet]

So more nesting hens, producing more poults, won't result in a higher mortality survival? Percentage - wise that doesn't make any sense.

[chas0218]

Numbers are down because predator populations are higher.

[Skillet]

Numbers are down because predator populations are higher.

That, as well as other factors.

[Skillet]

Numbers are up? Really?

[chas0218]

Wow in our area we used to have flocks of birds in the 20+ range (2 years ago) now they are in the 6-10 range.

 

Here is a photo of what I'm talking about. Look at the date.

Edited November 6, 2015 by chas0218

[Marion]

I have been seeing record numbers on the land I hunt. Then again it's private land and I am the only one that hunts it. But I've been regularly seeing 20+ birds at a clip. Hopefully the flock growth continues and I'll never be without a nice Tom to shoot come open season

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[turkeyfeathers]

I have been seeing record numbers on the land I hunt. Then again it's private land and I am the only one that hunts it. But I've been regularly seeing 20+ birds at a clip. Hopefully the flock growth continues and I'll never be without a nice Tom to shoot come open season

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Recently ? By spring that flock will split . Crazy, two years ago while deer hunting I counted 53 birds. They kept coming out of the pines, and coming and coming. Must have had every bird from hills nearby in that flock.  And not a peep out of any of them. The wind was blowing towards them from my stand so they must have smelled me    By spring I don't think I raised more than a few different gobblers.

[G-Man]

When there are a lot of hens thetoms don't have to gobble, and they learn not to as it atracks fox and yotes. 1 tom can breed dozens of hens , remember hens go to toms, we try and reverse that if there are few hens the toms come running ,if there are a lot of hens they usually have a bunch with them all the time,until egglaying and brooding is going on which can be late as there are to many hens..

I've gone in many times to a known roost area never heard a tom gobble and killed gobblers

[The_Real_TCIII]

Spike out in the field a good 150 away

[The_Real_TCIII]

Wrong thread

[Skillet]

Skillet--dont agree with you bro!!

That's fine, maybe where you are, numbers are up. I can guarantee you that in my area, numbers are down. The fall flock I see around my place is small this year. There's little sign. The birds on camera are fewer than normal. Fall hunting is not, & will not be allowed on my property. Period. I won't be killing 2 birds a year anytime soon, even if given the chance. I've got a self imposed 1 bird limit on the property, & I hope my son kills it. We also kill every predator we see (in season of course...)

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