NC turkey season changes proposed and now available for public comments

oldest school said:
and to make it worse as has been said repeatedly- no one cares as long as it's not their turkeys that are gone. The state points to record harvests.
The rest of us can point to stats that contradict the obvious- they are absent in suitable habitat. Exactly where we were when restocking was championed.
Again quail come to mind. Here today vanished in just a few years.
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Very true. I hunted large tracts of land in alamance, guilford, caswell, davidson, stokes, randolph counties for a good long time. Not much has changed around those tracts and I don't have the access that I did back then but most all of those tracts are pretty desolate now. The tract in davidson county was a part of the stocking program. I remember the first year I saw turkeys in the area it was like seeing sasquatch, and then the first year they opened that part of the county for hunting I tagged out in the first 2 days. There were birds everywhere, now it's back to being like it was before the stocking. Makes me scratch my head. They really are becoming like quail in a lot of areas.
 
ScottyB said:
I just flew through all the last bunch of post- I do recall seeing several folks talking about moving to a 1 bird limit…… Now- is there a way to pull up how many hunters harvested 2 NC birds this past season? I’m just thinking that a one bird limit would not change much because the majority don’t kill 2 birds anyway- maybe I’m wrong just going off club data and personal experience! I would be curious to know that number- maybe Oldest School has a way to pull it??
Just something to think about along the 1 bird line…….
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100% agree about that. The % that kills 2 birds is very low in the overall harvest amount in my opinion. Would like to see hard numbers before saying for sure.
 
hawglips said:
I would would rather reduce the take to one bird than move the season back a week. I missed the first nine days of the season this year and would prefer not to have to do it again … hunting hot weather and birds that don’t work is a recipe for wanting to go fishing more in the spring
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Yes sir, the hotter weather even early April makes it not as much enjoyable. The later the start, the worse the heat second half.
That should be a consideration for the benefit of the hunters.
 
With the east booming with such a large harvest over time, why change anything?

Western piedmont & mountains seem to be having harvest number problems.

We have different seasons in parts of our state for deer, based on harvest and breeding. Maybe it’s time to split the state in half
for turkeys too.
 
turkeyfoot said:
No doesn't align upstate still same low country to April 1st
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Neck.I'm.still going back.to SC.next year. Lots more.turkey down there for.me.to hunt than where I got and on the Uwharrie game.lands. Eastern Nc and SC. Is all I'm hunting next spring. Shouldn't be many Nc hunters down there then.lol . Its getting bad in central Nc. Need some.counties.or.parts of.closed or shorten season.Turkeys cannot withstand the amount of hunters nowadays.like they did just 10 to 15 Year ago. The recruitment of turkeys are being killed very spring in most spots .Never seen or.heard a Jake all season in Nc.very few 2 year olds. The ones me and.my boy and friends.got were 3 or older except my sons SC. Bird. Now.seen a ton of jakes in SC.youth day. One opening day different spot and 6 long beards. We got 3 that day. Never seen but 6 hens all spring.usually see that many in a day or.2.
 
ScottyB said:
Ban TSS and Red dots( unless under 16)Blinds , and Decoys and permethrin , reaping got to go- then let’s see who’s left! Take it back old school! Those will help more than season changes and limit changes! Especially the permethrin!!😂😂
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you jest but surely the ease of take now will get folks looking for a challenge. Right now many turkey hunters are like kids starting to deer hunt- brown down and the easier the better. They dont know any way but easy. Surely they will tire of this as they gain experience- like most deer hunters advance to wanting more challenge.
I hope/think they will bring back shades of old school and make that fashionable versus killing them from tents at 110yds. We'll see.
 
YanceyGreenhorn said:
ah yes, the old “pitch a verbal grenade into the crowd and slowly tiptoe out as an innocent bystander” tactic
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If you believe that, well you don't. Since he hit the enter tab he has sat and watched the view count climb like an old wall street miser watching a ticker tape. You can bet he has been switching hands and still been home ordering the family size bottles of Equate hand lotion since this started.
 
ScottyB said:
Ban TSS and Red dots( unless under 16)Blinds , and Decoys and permethrin , reaping got to go- then let’s see who’s left! Take it back old school! Those will help more than season changes and limit changes! Especially the permethrin!!😂😂
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Wait patiently while CRC finds a “study” where NCWRC theorizes that permethrin gives turkeys better breeding odds. Sponsored by Sawyer’s Outdoor Products!
 
This topic is like trying to pick up the clean end of a turd, not easy. I'm all for the youth season being 2 days. State is too diverse to have same open and end dates for Elizabeth city and Murphy. Idk how you split it but it needs to be split. I'd be ok with 1 bird limit, higher non resident license costs.
 
Lucky Clucker said:
Neck.I'm.still going back.to SC.next year. Lots more.turkey down there for.me.to hunt than where I got and on the Uwharrie game.lands. Eastern Nc and SC. Is all I'm hunting next spring. Shouldn't be many Nc hunters down there then.lol . Its getting bad in central Nc. Need some.counties.or.parts of.closed or shorten season.Turkeys cannot withstand the amount of hunters nowadays.like they did just 10 to 15 Year ago. The recruitment of turkeys are being killed very spring in most spots .Never seen or.heard a Jake all season in Nc.very few 2 year olds. The ones me and.my boy and friends.got were 3 or older except my sons SC. Bird. Now.seen a ton of jakes in SC.youth day. One opening day different spot and 6 long beards. We got 3 that day. Never seen but 6 hens all spring.usually see that many in a day or.2.
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What’s funny about this ^^^ is it proves “perspective “ is misleading

SC #s have been way down in comparison to NC
 
Any talks of easy turkeys is a foreign language to me…. Never seen an easy one to kill

Maybe certain fields w a booming population it is BUT probably my demise, I’ve killed 5 or less in fields , I prefer woods a… especially the mountains
 
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Helium said:
Any talks of east turkeys is a foreign language to me…. Never seen an easy one to kill

Maybe certain fields w a booming population it is BUT probably my demise, I’ve killed 5 or less in fields , I prefer woods a… especially the mountains
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In my experience Them birds down east are by and far the easiest eastern turkeys I’ve ever hunted.
 
Ambush said:
With the east booming with such a large harvest over time, why change anything?

Western piedmont & mountains seem to be having harvest number problems.

We have different seasons in parts of our state for deer, based on harvest and breeding. Maybe it’s time to split the state in half
for turkeys too.
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Why Change? Because they know the pressure and the ease of methods will catch up to the turkeys. That's more than they want to admit as the "cause" of the record harvests. Turkey hunting has become literally child's play for a zillion new hunters.
This is the first of a Creeping loss of opportunity to keep enough turkeys to make more money for the INDUSTRY.
Dont forget that INDUSTRY includes the state.
Follow the money. Who paid for that 7 yr study and what do they want?
 
OK, so 6 pages in....

>if< turkey populations and recruit member are falling, despite historic year over year increase in harvest.

And I'll assume, given I've not seen data to support, there are a combination of factors contributing to 'low nesting success, poor brood survival and low productivity across all regions'.

Personally, I'd rather see a limit change (to 1 bearded) and a change to (meso)predators...such as, open the seasons to coincide with open of archery deer season (I know I've seen raccoons while sitting in the stand)...

Ymmv
 
Helium said:
Any talks of east turkeys is a foreign language to me…. Never seen an easy one to kill

Maybe certain fields w a booming population it is BUT probably my demise, I’ve killed 5 or less in fields , I prefer woods a… especially the mountains
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EASY NOT EAST
 
oldest school said:
Why Change? Because they know the pressure and the ease of methods will catch up to the turkeys. That's more than they want to admit as the "cause" of the record harvests. Turkey hunting has become literally child's play for a zillion new hunters.
This is the first of a Creeping loss of opportunity to keep enough turkeys to make more money for the INDUSTRY.
Dont forget that INDUSTRY includes the state.
Follow the money. Who paid for that 7 yr study and what do they want?
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Well I say no change in the season opening for adults. But, if they are going to push the opening back a week, then open the west a week later and leave the east the same. Why punish the east, when they are having record harvest. Who knows if the NC south eastern numbers will drop, but for now it’s working as good as we could ask.
 
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newt said:
This topic is like trying to pick up the clean end of a turd, not easy. I'm all for the youth season being 2 days. State is too diverse to have same open and end dates for Elizabeth city and Murphy. Idk how you split it but it needs to be split. I'd be ok with 1 bird limit, higher non resident license costs.
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How about 0 Non resident licenses??? After all it’s about the population not the money
 
And have they ever thought about why the Southeastern counties have boomed so much?

Yeah sure, TSS has allowed more gobblers to be killed. But they have also allowed hunters to kill more yotes at a further distance.
TSS is only used to kill Tom’s. Predators kill hens also. With higher turkey numbers, adds more hunters in the fields & woods to kill both turkeys and predators.

Also most property east of 95 is coon hunted. I know ours was hunted hard until they cut the timber. TSS tech helps increase turkey
harvest. But another tech advancement is now being used to hunt predators at night. I know guys that have $5000 set ups and work on the predators in the east. I don’t know the answers, but maybe the biologist should take a very hard look at why the southeast NC is working so well.
 
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I would just read the transcript versus listening to save time. This is the TN bios discussing their project that is mentioned here so often.
One big takeaway- You need corn flavored crickets. :)

 
Ambush said:
And have they ever thought about why the Southeastern counties have boomed so much?

Yeah sure, TSS has allowed more gobblers to be killed. But they have also allowed hunters to kill more yotes at a further distance.
TSS is only used to kill Tom’s. Predators kill hens too. With higher turkey numbers, adds more hunters in the fields & woods to kill both turkeys and predators.

Also most property east of 95 is coon hunted. I know ours was hunted hard until they cut the timber. TSS tech helps increase turkey
harvest. But another tech advancement is now being used to hunt predators at night. I know guys that have $5000 set ups and work on the predators in the east. I don’t know the answers, but maybe the biologist should take a very hard look at why the southeast NC is working so well.
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his first observation should be how many folks are trying to kill turkeys in southeast NC now versus the past. harvest data alone does not tell the entire story.

the bios have no clue- if you doubt that - read the transcripts or watch these UF DEER lab podcasts. They are on there speculating as badly as we are on this forum.
Disease- Predators- Habitat- They want that smoking gun but it aint there. They even state that when harvest was highest in many southeast states trapping was at a lower level than today. Their words not my speculation.

Yet none of them will mention the elephants in the room. Pressure and methods. The very things that can be controlled.
 
Ambush said:
Well I say no change in the season opening for adults. But, if they are going to push the opening back a week, then open the west a week later and leave the east the same. Why punish the east, when they are having record harvest. Who knows if the NC south eastern numbers will drop, but for now it’s working as good as we could ask.
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i'll give you two reasons why no split.
The east does not want the mtn men in mass down east on their opener.
NC has been uniform so long that that paradigm will be hard to break.

And of course they dont see this as punishment for the East. This will make them even better. :)
 
oldest school said:
i'll give you two reasons why no split.
The east does not want the mtn men in mass down east on their opener.
NC has been uniform so long that that paradigm will be hard to break.

And of course they dont see this as punishment for the East. This will make them even better. :)
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I don’t want a split, but don’t want a third Saturday opening either.

We should all be pumped that Southeast NC turkey harvest is booming. Instead they want to punish all with the later opening.

If nothing else, this thread has thrown out several ideas before the hearing proposals. Their mind may already be made up though.
 
oldest school said:
I would just read the transcript versus listening to save time. This is the TN bios discussing their project that is mentioned here so often.
One big takeaway- You need corn flavored crickets. :)

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Good video so far. I’ll watch the rest tomorrow. Thanks
 
oldest school said:
I would just read the transcript versus listening to save time. This is the TN bios discussing their project that is mentioned here so often.
One big takeaway- You need corn flavored crickets. :)

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Everyone should really listen to that it's the largest scale study on the topic done to date and provides an excellent base for why there is no reason change sesson dates. Another important fact not sure if they mentioned it but TN after the sesson date was moved back had one their worse hatch years in while again proving the point and I wouldn't make that my out state destination in 25. But this year they are flying high already above last few years total with 2 weeks still to go might be lots carryover.
 
oldest school said:
i'll give you two reasons why no split.
The east does not want the mtn men in mass down east on their opener.
NC has been uniform so long that that paradigm will be hard to break.

And of course they dont see this as punishment for the East. This will make them even better. :)
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Nope no one wants my ugly mug riding that way to spook their birds up and same for east coming here on a split everyone wants hunt fresh birds.
 
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