Tennessee just rejected a statewide 2 gobbler/bearded bird limit for the spring season

[CRC]

Rejected an attempt to go to a 2 bird limit (from 4)

They did just go to 3 birds a season (from 4)

Now they are debating restricting jake harvest.

"no jake" rule rejected

 

[oldest school]

it doesnt matter what the limit is if you dont have birds they killed a zillion this year in TN.

they could leave it at 4 or cut it to one and have little impact past "doing something".

 

[CRC]

The amendments came from the commissioners not the biologists

 

[nhn2a]

Where'd you find that information at? I can't find it online.

 

[CRC]

 

[josh]

Somethings got to give, I don’t claim to know all the answers but something does need done and at least this is a start. I would have rather seen it lowered to 2 but more importantly the season needs to open later and everyone gets up in arms over that, (it really does open way toooo early IMO)

Man TN has been getting hammered last few years with out of state hunters and increased public land pressure, the TN birds seem the most susceptible to this reaping and strutter decoy mania haha at least from what ya see and read on YouTube and forums

 

[josh]

Opening week of TN turkey season is insanely easy in some areas, I’ve hunted it

If someone puts a few dekes especially a strutter on the edge of a field the old field birds run in on a string

I don’t hunt these birds that way and I will not ever but that’s the most used tactic. Tag out as fast as possible to post on social media and get praise, not good with a FOUR bird limit

If they opened the season 2 weeks later and banned decoys I’d be tickled

 

[CRC]

They did take two weeks off the season in a few counties so the season would open after peak breeding

They are mainly targeting the counties with the biggest declines it seems and it seems a number of counties are seeing no declines at all

 

[Randy]

Doesn't TN have a fall season?

 

[30/06]

Does killing gobblers really have much impact on turkey numbers? Same with deer you can shoot lots of bucks and have almost no influence on deer numbers. Start thinning does and numbers drop.

The problem isn’t harvest in my opinion. NC is seeing numbers decline in many areas, KY is, TN is, there is something else causing this or several somethings.

 

[oldest school]

Opening week of TN turkey season is insanely easy in some areas, I’ve hunted it

If someone puts a few dekes especially a strutter on the edge of a field the old field birds run in on a string

I don’t hunt these birds that way and I will not ever but that’s the most used tactic. Tag out as fast as possible to post on social media and get praise, not good with a FOUR bird limit

If they opened the season 2 weeks later and banned decoys I’d be tickled

I like your logic, dont have a dog in the fight but find the discussion fascinating. It seemed that it (TN turkey regs) was heading for some strong changes prior to this season then boom, record easy hunting. Turkey hunters have become as greedy as the deer crowd.
It's a race to the bottom in ease of killing and stacking them up for chest pumping via SM.
Folks cant fathom "shooting them out" But we did it before without the fine tools we have today.

 

[strut buster]

I like your logic, dont have a dog in the fight but find the discussion fascinating. It seemed that it (TN turkey regs) was heading for some strong changes prior to this season then boom, record easy hunting. Turkey hunters have become as greedy as the deer crowd.
It's a race to the bottom in ease of killing and stacking them up for chest pumping via SM.
Folks cant fathom "shooting them out" But we did it before without the fine tools we have today.

I like the logic, too. I don't know about shooting them out, but to me it comes down to what is fair chase and what is not. I avoid turkey deke videos like the plague (had to scratch THP from my small list of watchable), but even avoiding them saw two videos this year where gobblers were missed over a full strutter, both in NC is I remember correctly. In one instance, the turkey never left after the shot. In the other, they ran off but came back within minutes. Some of you outlaws correct me if I'm wrong, but if you miss a turkey over bait, I'd assume he will run off and not come back for at least a few hours. There is a such thing as too easy and from an outsider looking in, fanning and full strutters are the definition of too easy.

 

[CRC]

According to what the TN turkey biologist was saying you can harvest too many gobblers before peak breeding or rut and hurt your population

 

[oldest school]

I like the logic, too. I don't know about shooting them out, but to me it comes down to what is fair chase and what is not. I avoid turkey deke videos like the plague (had to scratch THP from my small list of watchable), but even avoiding them saw two videos this year where gobblers were missed over a full strutter, both in NC is I remember correctly. In one instance, the turkey never left after the shot. In the other, they ran off but came back within minutes. Some of you outlaws correct me if I'm wrong, but if you miss a turkey over bait, I'd assume he will run off and not come back for at least a few hours. There is a such thing as too easy and from an outsider looking in, fanning and full strutters are the definition of too easy.

Full disclosure on my part;
I am struggling with the fan. kenny morgan's second book details in scientific terms why turkeys are defenseless against fanning and full strut dekes. So I know they are an unfair advantage.
That being said i have shown one on one hunt and it worked way too well. Allowed a landowners grandson an easy kill.
Unfortunately i didnt stop there, even carried it on trip with the best guide around to use on pasture birds.

havent showed it since didnt carry it much but it sure was fun get such a immediate response.
satan sure shows up in some interesting places.
if the use continues it'll result in changes in regs or they'll all be gone.

hopefully i resist the dark side.

 

[turkeyfoot]

You can over harvest gobblers and not have enough carry over even though most of the harvest is made up of 2 year olds you still want some carry over. Also I'll stand by it the reaping and decoys to an extent I believe has negative effect taking out dominant birds that woukd have lived longer years ago doing majority of breeding. Now those birds are spotted easily in many areas due to development and have turned into easy kills when they woulda been the one you chased all season and never did get in range. Good for Tenn for trying. Its a diverse state west Tenn and east Tenn are 2 diffetent worlds

 

[turkeyfoot]

Does killing gobblers really have much impact on turkey numbers? Same with deer you can shoot lots of bucks and have almost no influence on deer numbers. Start thinning does and numbers drop.

The problem isn’t harvest in my opinion. NC is seeing numbers decline in many areas, KY is, TN is, there is something else causing this or several somethings.

Killing dominant birds to early has major impact. Comparing turkeys to deer is more than apples and oranges not even close to same management plan and fragility of population

 

[turkeyfoot]

Doesn't TN have a fall season?

They do and it used to be insane you could kill double digit birds by switching counties they have since added more sensible restrictions including closing some counties

 

[darkthirty]

I’ll preface by saying I am not a turkey hunter. Don’t care nothing about it. When we bought our farm 3 years ago, you could go out at daylight and the gobbling was unreal. Our place is right off the French broad river. There were so many gobbling it sounded like one continuous gobble up and down the river. I’d hear them behind my barn as well. It was nothing to hear 25-40 gobbles just letting the dogs out first thing in the morning. This year, I probably haven heard 50 gobbles since March.
I equate turkey hunting here to flounder fishing in NC. There’s a lot of people saying there’s not as many as there used to be, but yet, the good turkey hunters are still making it look easy.