Missouri All Day Turkey Hunting

[E_308]

Looks like we get to hunt until dark next year instead of 1pm? Had a pretty good hatch this year but I would have waited for a couple more in a row before making this change. The changes to fall hunting won't matter much with the limited harvest. Thoughts?

 

[yoderjac]

We have had partial season all day hunting in VA for as long as I can remember. The biggest benefit from a regulation change here was the deconfliction with deer season. Lots of hens were killed in the fall opportunistically by deer hunters. They are talking about full season all day hunting here in VA as well.

The biggest factor in numbers seems to be spring weather and there is little we can do about that. Consecutive cold wet days make poults susceptible to viruses.

Many states are beginning to see a decline in turkey numbers and biologists are still trying to identify causes. I wonder how much impact avian flu has on wild turkey populations. I know they have killed tens of thousands of domestic turkey recently because of flu outbreaks. One year we had a domestic gobbler strut with our wild birds, He lasted a few weeks. I think he was too big to fly up and roost. I got pictures of a fox chasing him at night and we found the feathers the next day. I wonder if escaped domestic birds could be an avian flu source for wild birds.

I like the approach our DWR took with turkey. By deconflicting fall seasons from modern firearm deer season, they were able to give turkey hunters even more fall opportunities to hunt while reducing the overall hen harvest in the fall.

Right now, we have a great turkey population on our pine farm. It will be interesting to see how populations trend going forward.

 

[letemgrow]

I can't see this impacting the overall turkey #'s that much.

 

[gut_pile]

A state that is experiencing population decrease, increasing the hunting opportunity seems quite stupid to me.

 

[yoderjac]

A state that is experiencing population decrease, increasing the hunting opportunity seems quite stupid to me.

Keep in mind that shooting gobblers has little impact on the population in a state like that. The question is whether hunters in the woods are flushing hens off the nest enough to reduce production. I think season timing plays a role in this as well. Generally, increasing hunting opportunity in the spring can be a way to offset hunter dissatisfaction when reducing fall hunting opportunity to increase population.

 

[gut_pile]

I understand the thought process on people interrupting hens and I do believe it has an impact. It is also being well documented here in the south, and many other areas, that shooting gobblers can have a major impact on populations. Especially if they are killed too early in the spring.

 

[yoderjac]

I understand the thought process on people interrupting hens and I do believe it has an impact. It is also being well documented here in the south, and many other areas, that shooting gobblers can have a major impact on populations. Especially if they are killed too early in the spring.

You need to have a pretty low population and a high and early gobbler harvest to impact populations. Hens don't require a second encounter with a gobbler, even for a second nesting. Good wildlife agencies, generally start the season after most hens have been bred. With borderline turkey populations, perhaps this is a consideration, but with healthy populations it is not. Here, we have always had 3 tags that can be used in the spring for gobblers and our populations are doing pretty well. We have the normal ups and downs, but spring weather and fall hen harvests are our biggest drivers.

 

[letemgrow]

but spring weather and fall hen harvests are our biggest drivers.

The weather seems to be the biggest factor from a yearly perspective. The amount of turkeys I've seen this fall is 10x what has been around the previous few years. The seasons, predators and harvests haven't changed to produce the results of this year. The only logical reason is the spring weather produced better hatches this year with the hot and dry weather we had.

Now long term the habitat needs to be there for when there are good hatches to increase the species.

 

[E_308]

Yep, a cold wet spring kills a lot more poults than predators. I still do some trapping and it might make a minor difference, especially with the newer spring season. Every egg saved is upping the chances. If we could get spring weather like last spring for a few in a row I think we could be back in the hay day in 3 - 4 years. Or it cold be raining and cold like the 5 years before that and we will really be struggling. We can only control so much.

 

[yoderjac]

We still have lots of avian predators, but since the coyotes have moved in, our nest predator population is down. As much as coyotes are negatively impacting deer recruitment, they are not having that effect on turkey.