yoderjac
5 year old buck +
Double congrats on that!
Turkey Season
- Thread starter TreesuitSC
- Start date
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
Good thing about that, there is no limit on them....bad thing is there seems to be a never ending supply.
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
My season is looking up! Took a 2-year old this morning. 2 lbs heavier than the 3-year old I took last Thursday. Looks like he has been breeding a little but not as much as the 3-year old was. Since three 3-year old birds have been taken since opening day, it probably opened the field for this 2-year old to start breeding a bit more.
blueKYstream
5 year old buck +
Congrats Jack! That's great!
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
Thanks! I do have some mixed emotions. We have now killed 4 of the 5 longbeards that I know are using our farm. I'm feeling a little reluctant to take the last bird. You know how it is when multiple folks get together and invest in a farm. I don't want the others to feel locked out. We bought a couple small lots to build a retirement home about 15 minutes from the farm. There were plenty of turkey using it last year. I hunted it opening day and heard and saw nothing. I checked the camera and don't have any turkey pics this year. I'll probably try that a few times. I have one tag left.
Thanks,
Jack
blueKYstream
5 year old buck +
I'd say most of the hens are likely bred. Those longbeards don't live real long anyways. Others will take their place.
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
Killing the last longbeard is not and issue. Jakes will even breed if they can. The issue is balancing relationships with other owners. There are 5 owners. Two sons of one of the owners each took one and I took the other two. I don't want the other owners to feel like they don't have a fair shot at the birds. It is not a wildlife management issue, it is a people management issues, and those are the most difficult.
Thanks,
Jack
blueKYstream
5 year old buck +
Ah, I see what you're saying. Yeah, the people aspect is probably the toughest to manage. It just takes one person to not be on the same page. Of course, I hope it all does though!
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
Congrats! We get 3 tags here, but the limit is one per day. I've often had to pass up shots because I would have killed two gobblers with one shot. Last year I watched 3 gobblers, half dozen hens, and 6 jakes for 45 minutes before the gobblers separated enough for me to get a shot at only one. The jakes really helped. They got too close to the hens and the dominate gobbler started chasing them. That got him far enough away from the other gobblers and hens for a shot. I killed him on his return from the chase.
Beautiful birds you got!
Jack
Beautiful birds you got!
Jack
weekender21
5 year old buck +
NC mountains bird. Could have easily doubled as his buddy stuck around for quite a while taking advantage of his downed friend. NC is a one bird/day state. I didn’t plan on shooting more than one this season anyway.
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
ksgobbler
5 year old buck +
I think we are going to go to one bird per season in this part of KS unless things change. 15 year decline and they wanted to close the fall season bjt our commission chair likes to fall turkey hunt so he vetoed it. When I bought this place you would hear 10 gobblers in a morning. After I took those 2 I didnt hear one this morning, but I know there are some jakes around. Saw 3 thr other day, and there was a jake with those longbeards when they came in.
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
I have not been out since my last harvest. They do a pretty good job of management here in VA. They deconflicted turkey season in the fall from the busy part of deer season. This reduced our fall harvest significantly as fall flocks were broken up by the high number of deer hunters and then taken opportunistically by deer hunters. After a few years, they extended the turkey season in the fall/winter but kept it out of the busy part of deer season. This gives turkey hunters more opportunity to hunt turkey without reducing the hen population.
We get 3 tags, one can be used spring or fall so that limits hen harvest to 1 per season. All 3 can be used for spring gobbler which does not impact the population. It is rare for me to burn all three tags. I could easily shoot hens and jakes during archery season with a crossbow at my place. I must have 6 to 10 shot opportunities during the archery season. They are legal but I rarely take a bird in the fall. I took my first hen with a crossbow one year and a super-jake the next year with a muzzleloader. The following year I took a jake with a muzzleloader. I took a hen one fall with a compound bow but I have not yet killed a mature gobbler in the fall with a crossbow or a compound. If I have the opportunity to do that, I probably will. Otherwise, I'll save the tag for spring (as far as tags to, fall comes before spring here). Even though I start most springs with 3 tags, it is rare for me to fill them all. After harvesting one or two, I tend to start focusing on habitat work.
Beyond fall survival of hens, studies show the biggest factor in turkey populations is the spring weather. Poults are very susceptible to viruses when we have cool damp springs. Sometimes if the bad weather is early enough, hens will renest. Late May and June weather is key. Thunderstorms with warm weather the next day are less problematic than slow moving fronts where we get cool weather and rain for several days in a row.
Thanks,
Jack
ksgobbler
5 year old buck +
2 longbeards have already moved in to fill the void. Saw them today. Found 3 nests destroyed by predators while mushroom hunting. Fescue encroachment is everywhere. Good friday either 99 or 2000 I heard 38 birds on the roost. I could drive one loop and see easy 300 turkeys. Drove the same loop last week and saw 1 hen. Its underwater right now but will be exposed later this week if we don'tt get the rain they are calling for.
blueKYstream
5 year old buck +
Way to lay them down! Nice birds!
