Too many dead turkeys?

lasttombstone

Kinder, Gentler LTS
Figured someone needed to get this started early and it may as well be me. Is the Corvid-19 virus be the demise of the NC turkey population? The numbers are impressive already and I can only guess that they will continue to grow.

This years youth season accounted for nearly double the previous year's kill. I failed to write the numers down late Friday night but best i can remember the count this year was around 2400+ and last year's count was around 1200+.

As of right now, the count is 6653 which accounts for around 4000 kills since yesterday morning, assuming all the youth kills got reported prior to Sat. morning. That is up roughly 1700 from the 3 year average. If you figure in that the youth count was up 1200 for a week, then the opening day kill is up around 500 birds for opening day. I know I'm close but please, don't anyone hold me to the math. I was never too good at it.

All the kids are out of school so youth season gets maximized. A lot of adults are out of work so many more will be in the woods than normal. All that extra time means more opportunity for folks to tag out and novice hunters will get more time and exposure which means more opportunity.

Anyone want to take a guess at the number at the end of the season? Last year it was 16,119.. In 2017 the number was 16,572.
 

QuietButDeadly

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I have seen the kill numbers numbers in NC continue to grow but have not contributed to them for several years. Our bird population in my area is not all that great so I have been giving them a pass and enjoying a road trip to where there is much better hunting. Going to miss that this year since my usual states quit selling tags to non residents.

I did add one to the total yesterday and will try to get another one somewhere in NC this year.

But I think you are absolutely correct that this will be a record year by quite a bit. I hope it is not the start of a big decline for the future.

I am happy to see some early hay mowing in my neck of the woods before the hens are setting. They will be forced to nest in areas that were not mowed so that should at least improve the chances of nest success.

Will also be interesting to see the numbers at the end of the season for the states that have shut down non residents.
 

timber

Twelve Pointer
Not sure that would as much of a problem all accross the state. Maybe areas with alot of public land. Here its all private and most of the guys i know easly tag out anyway.
 

ScottyB

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
We haven’t laid the first one out yet.......but I have counted 14 jakes around for future hunts! Lots of hens....we usually kill about 6 gobblers per year......seems Pretty normal on our place other than the killing hasn’t started yet!
 

nhn2a

Ten Pointer
I think everyone being off of work and school is definitely going to cause the numbers of harvests to rise quite a bit. I can personally say if it wasnt for the kids being off of school my son wouldnt have harvested his during youth week since he would have normally been at school the day it finally happened.

I dont personally think that it will be the demise of the turkeys though but I guess it really depends on the local population and could negatively effect areas that already have a low concentration of turkey. Does NC have a target number of turkeys to harvest? I wonder if they stop or limit the harvest at some point like they do bear hunts in FL and other states when they reach a certain number?
 

stevewes2004

Four Pointer
I would think public lands would be much more affected than private. But who knows, I guess we’ll find out at the end of the season....


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MJ74

Old Mossy Horns
Cancel the rest of Turkey Season......there I fixed it[emoji14]

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Reactions: jug

Part-time hunter

Ten Pointer
I know that where I have a permit hunt coming up that the number of permits is pretty small considering the size of it. So unless the ”youth“ hunts wipe them out there will be a few birds left for us adults. That’s also hoping the coyotes haven’t done too much damage and there’s a lot of them where we’re going. That’s where I got one in range awhile back.
 

Ol Copper

Twelve Pointer
I have never been one to post up here and tell people how to hunt. Your tag, your choice.
But I may be breaking my own rule here....
Lay off the jakes. Last years hatch was extremely good for most of NC, the best in years.
With everybody out of school and work it is easy to see that the kills are going up quickly. This is the one time I will say that people kinda' need to be selective.
With natural gobbler carryover from this season and the jakes from this past spring it should be ok next year. We won't see how this truly plays out til a couple of seasons from now.
 

Buxndiverdux

Old Mossy Horns
I have never been one to post up here and tell people how to hunt. Your tag, your choice.
But I may be breaking my own rule here....
Lay off the jakes. Last years hatch was extremely good for most of NC, the best in years.
With everybody out of school and work it is easy to see that the kills are going up quickly. This is the one time I will say that people kinda' need to be selective.
With natural gobbler carryover from this season and the jakes from this past spring it should be ok next year. We won't see how this truly plays out til a couple of seasons from now.

I have seen a bunch of Jakes already. To the point that they are a PITA.
 

jug

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I have never been one to post up here and tell people how to hunt. Your tag, your choice.
But I may be breaking my own rule here....
Lay off the jakes. Last years hatch was extremely good for most of NC, the best in years.
With everybody out of school and work it is easy to see that the kills are going up quickly. This is the one time I will say that people kinda' need to be selective.
With natural gobbler carryover from this season and the jakes from this past spring it should be ok next year. We won't see how this truly plays out til a couple of seasons from now.
Yep. I was close to shooting a bird this morning but something told me to wait and make sure they were longbeards.... glad I did. All I could see was red heads moving thru the woods at first.
4 Jakes got to live
 

CutNRun

Ten Pointer
Contributor
My granddad always taught me that killing jakes is stealing from your own future and that killing egg layers was counterproductive. I think kids and new hunters get a pass on taking jakes and the rest of us ought to strive to take grown gobblers.

Back when we had the experimental "Fall" season and hens were legal, I had jakes and hens in range several times, but couldn't make myself pull the trigger. Mainly because I'd rather hunt spring gobblers and also because I don't want to spend a tag on something with half the meat.

Jim
 

TravisLH

Old Mossy Horns
Yep. I was close to shooting a bird this morning but something told me to wait and make sure they were longbeards.... glad I did. All I could see was red heads moving thru the woods at first.
4 Jakes got to live

Good on ya.... the other morning I heard a close gobble them 30 seconds later I saw a turkey comin down the lane.... sun had just crested and was hard to look at it. Glad I heard off cuz it was just a jake with a hen following


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jug

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Well I saw 3 more Jakes yesterday evening on a different farm riding around so I am good.
 

sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Record harvest for sure. It’s not JUST school that’s out. Or work. Church is online only. And ALL ballgames are cancelled. That’s kids, coaches, parents and grandparents that are now free to hunt. There are plenty of folks still working that just got their whole weekend back.
 

TarheelTurkey

Six Pointer
Largest demise in my opinion is the early season , including the week long youth season. Toms not having the opportunity to breed before getting killed ,


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oldest school

Old Mossy Horns
Largest demise in my opinion is the early season , including the week long youth season. Toms not having the opportunity to breed before getting killed ,


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well if we want opinions it's real simple to me.
we have ways that make killing them extremely easy.
early season middle season late season.
Until they figure out pop up blinds, decoys, fans, 70 yd loads, they cant make enough to replace what we can kill.
:panic: :panic: :panic: :panic: :panic: :p
 

timber

Twelve Pointer
Largest demise in my opinion is the early season , including the week long youth season. Toms not having the opportunity to breed before getting killed ,


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Western part of state maybe different especially in the mountains but i think alot of hens are already on the nest by the opening of the season. Have seen gobblers strutting hard with hens since first of march. The last couple weeks i have seen very few hens in the field like it was. Guess could be several reasons for that. But i think alot are nesting
 
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