Wild Turkey population is tanking across most of its range

Brian662 said:
It's always the same story, right? Tech has advanced in such a way that hunting has become easier to being successful.
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Definitely. I know for a fact people shoot deer at 100 yards every year with the way compounds have evolved. The more efficient the technology becomes, the more it's going to be used. People participate in or see guys at TAC events shooting these long distances, and then they bring it to hunting. What used to be long distances (with any shooting technology that is evolving) is becoming common place.
 
BenA said:
Definitely. I know for a fact people shoot deer at 100 yards every year with the way compounds have evolved. The more efficient the technology becomes, the more it's going to be used. People participate in or see guys at TAC events shooting these long distances, and then they bring it to hunting. What used to be long distances (with any shooting technology that is evolving) is becoming common place.
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I think it was maybe Ravin Crossbows had a commercial shooting their crossbow at 100 yards - off a bench. That bolt takes forever to get there. I was hunting with my son one day and he decided to try to shoot a deer at distance with a crossbow. He had it in a field pod so was pretty stable. I had camera on a tripod for stability. He shot at a doe, with her head down feeding at 92 yards. Literally, she was out of sight before the bolt got there - she was not even in the video frame. My grand daughters hunt a fair bit with a crossbow. Even with a Ravin - supposedly one of the fastest - I have twice seen does “jump the string” at 45 yards. Crossbows - or at least the Ravin is very loud - with a sharp sound - not a dull sound like a compound. When my shoulder was all n one piece, I have shot deer with my compound at 35 yards. My son and his buddy are dead nuts at 40 and have killed a few just over 50. I consider 50 a very long shot with either a compound or a crossbow.
 
It's interesting to me. I have never in my life cared if I killed a turkey. Long shots have zero draw to me. I'd just as well go home empty handed as take a shot that wasn't perfect.

Now deer on the other hand... A giant buck walks by that isn't perfect will find me looking for a way to make it work. I very much have a desire shoot the big buck. I won't take risky shots on a deer and I absolutely hate to wound one, but I will search for a way to close the deal. If a turkey doesn't walk right up to me it's no big deal. I'll find another one.
 
We had the best poult recruitment in years in 2024 in my area. Anecdotal evidence shows the same thing all across the state. Kansas had one of the best poult surveys in a long time last year. Just wondering if other areas across the south saw the same thing last year.
 
I won't shoot 70 yards at a turkey, and I have a lot of experience with patterning shotguns. I won 13 NWTF World Still target championships and broke world records 6 times. As others have stated, shooting that far is just a recipe for wounding birds.

For one thing, not many people understand how much the wind will move a pattern at that distance. In competition we shot at 40 yards, and in some instances, I would hold as much as 15 inches to the side to compensate. Also, not many people even realize where their gun is hitting. Few guns hit to the POA when choked down with a turkey choke.
 
SwampCat said:
We had the best poult recruitment in years in 2024 in my area. Anecdotal evidence shows the same thing all across the state. Kansas had one of the best poult surveys in a long time last year. Just wondering if other areas across the south saw the same thing last year.
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We had a good poult year in 2024 in my area of Western Kentucky, I ran into a number of successful families late last spring into summer. In fact a friend said he saw 19 Jakes on my property yesterday in a stubble bean field.
 
I’ve seen zero in the last 3 months and have equally as many on camera. Listened Sunday and Monday morning and heard two birds on Monday somewhere near Florida
 
Brian662 said:
Come up to the upper Midwest, no shortage up here.
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Deal!
I have some stuff that just screams turkey too. Several hidden, secluded fields that you could just picture strutters out all springs…
 
I can't shake the bastards off. Turkeys are thick around me.

Now for long range shooting. I'm not shooting anything over 40 yards with a ravin. Well except I did hit a coyote that was laying down at 70 yards once. No remorse on a wound there....
 
My turkeys are better this year than last 10,also don't like long shots but then again I bowhunt them and daughter shotgun them
 
In Northern MO I hear people that regularly hunt for turkeys complain about the lack of birds. On our places, I pretty much never go a day working in the field without seeing at least a couple of groups. I filmed 60 toms and hens last fall from the deer stand. We don't seriously turkey hunt and neither do our neighbors.

I just get the impression it is from being over hunted/pressured in certain areas.
 
Our local DNR doesn’t make any sense.
We didn’t have any wild turkeys in this part of the state for a hundred years.
They stocked them twenty years ago and they did well, now they let hunters shoot two gobblers in spring and a hen in fall?
Ten years ago I could hear a dozen different gobblers in the morning, now I may hear one or two. Used to see hens with polts all summer now it’s rare.
Our family stopped hunting them here five years ago when we noticed a sharp drop in numbers.
 
NW Mass....been hunting turkeys since 1987, and numbers are WAY down over the past 10 years. And I agree with H2OFowler and Hoytvetrix.. I think over-hunting plays a role. Back in the 80's you could shoot 1 Tom and the season was either the First week, or the Second 2 weeks...hunter's choice. Now it's a full 4 weeks and you can shoot 2 toms and a hen in the fall. There are mountain ridges that I used to hunt where you could go on on the last day of the season and hear birds gobbling and have a decent chance of taking one. Now, on the day before opening morning, you'd be hard pressed to hear anything gobbling.

And as far as Dr. Woods...he used to be my favorite. But yes, he's gotten a little cringey with the shameless endorsements. As far as the increased range of modern shot shells? I personally have no interest in shooting out to 70 yards. But as long as that pattern is lethal to 70 yards I have no issue if somebody else wants to shoot that far. Compared to my smoothbore muzzleloaders and shotguns of the 80's....modern technology has easily tripled my effective range for deer over the past 40 years and I fully embraced that.
 
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I have no doubt overhunting plays some role, but ALL the studies show the biggest problem is poor nest success and poor poult survivability. Hunting has nothing to do with that. I have some land that borders a 27,000 acre NWR. They allow two days of youth hunting and two days of modern gun hunting with 50 permits allowed. Twelve years ago, you could hear a dozen gobblers in the morning while driving around scouting. Now, you MIGHT hear one. They now average killing zero to two gobblers a year. Hardly anyone even puts in for the permits. If hunting pressure was the main issue, that place should be covered up with turkeys
 
Kentucky 2023 poult per hen numbers were 2.3 pph - a number most southern states would die for. Also said that was about typical for previous few years. That number supposedly indicates an increasing flock
 
I'm not hunting them on my Kentucky place this year because I just don't see the numbers I'd like.

I don't think we can point to any one thing as THE cause for declining numbers in a lot of areas. It's probably a combination of different things like habitat, predators, weather at nesting and poult rearing times, etc. I think it's different factors working together that contribute to the decline or incline in numbers.
 
2024 was coincidentally a good poult year up here also, for our precious few hens. Now whether that translates into a good 2025, we'll find out in the next 2 months. If there's a handful of males, I'm planning on having my 11 and 13 yr olds hunt them and we won't take more than 2 total. Have never shot a hen during fall bow season even though it's been tempting.
 
BenA said:
I'm not hunting them on my Kentucky place this year because I just don't see the numbers I'd like.

I don't think we can point to any one thing as THE cause for declining numbers in a lot of areas. It's probably a combination of different things like habitat, predators, weather at nesting and poult rearing times, etc. I think it's different factors working together that contribute to the decline or incline in numbers.
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Interestingly - last year, we had the best hatch around my place in maybe 15 years. I have seven jakes on my place and two groups of hens. I have not got a game camera pic of a jake or seen one in ten years. Last year, the rainfall totals in my area were Apr 5”, May 10”, Jun 5” - hardly what would be considered good nesting weather.

We had almost a plague of grasshoppers last year. I started wearing safety glasses when riding around on my ranger they were so bad. I could see that bolstering poult survivability during summer and fall, but the grasshoppers were not really that thick until mid summer. I know KS had a good nesting season last year. I have heard anecdotal evidence that poult production was above average in other southern states.

Researchers are quick to study when things go bad. It seems like they rarely study when things are going good. When our turkey population was in a downward spiral, I know an area that kept a ton of turkeys through it all. I always wished someone would have studied that area to figure out why they had them - instead of studying some other area to figure out why they dont and find the same old thing - lack of nest success primarily directly due to predation.
 
SwampCat said:
Kentucky 2023 poult per hen numbers were 2.3 pph - a number most southern states would die for. Also said that was about typical for previous few years. That number supposedly indicates an increasing flock
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This is where I get skeptical of numbers. Sometimes I don’t know if they’re manipulated for some agenda or if they are just pulled from a sample where my anecdotal evidence doesn’t lineup with the results. I saw one hen with poults on camera, but that was it. I used to be able to sit on my porch and see a couple birds occasionally in the fields in front of my house. I have not seen one in the last 365 days in front of my house. Four years ago when I bought my place, I heard a bird every month of the year gobble which was pretty cool. This past season there was a couple mornings. I did not hear a single gobble in turkey season.
I raise an eyebrow when I hear organizations put out numbers that don’t lineup with what people are seeing in the field. Ducks unlimited has been saying for years that Mallard numbers are in line with historical averages. I think hunters in Arkansas would beg to differ.
 
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