H20fwler
5 year old buck +
In the area I grew up in SE MN, turkeys were absent until the mid 90's, and once they arrived, their numbers exploded. My theory is that the predators in the area had any experience hunting them, so there was little natural control. The hunting was unbelievable in the early 2000's, and it was pretty rare to take more than a day to fill a spring turkey tag. I would estimate today that the turkey numbers are half what they were during the peak, despite no major changes in habitat quality. I've watched coyote packs hunting turkeys and they clearly know to hunt them these days.
Our turkey numbers are still pretty good, but I really doubt they will ever reach the numbers in the early 2000's.
Maybe
Around here a couple of the younger guys chase them like crazy, they always try and shoot two gobblers then start taking friends out to shoot their two. Happens on the farm right next to me.
Our county was never a popular turkey destination with any kind of numbers to notice.
Making it a two bird county was just stupid.
Even the southern part of the state that used to have a LOT of turkeys for decades is a shadow of what it used to be since the two gobbler and a hen in fall limits went into place.
I think absolutely everything eats turkeys, I’ve called in yotes, eagles, feral cats, fox and even had a red tailed hawk swoop a decoy while hunting. And raccoons go after turkey nests like sweet corn.