Wild Turkey population is tanking across most of its range

Howboutthemdawgs

Howboutthemdawgs

5 year old buck +
I got an idea…let’s make a video on how we can decimate it even further. He’d promote a colon cleanse if they gave him a nickel. Top 2-3 biggest sell outs in the outdoor industry. These shells should 100% be illegal.

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I hear someone bragging every year about killing a bird at 70-80 yards, worst part not even calling them in, just ambushing at 80 yards. I don't know how much it hurts the population since it is only males I am hearing but it does not seem like fair chase.
 
I do too. I have trouble biting my tongue. If it didn’t hurt don’t have limit. Seasons aren’t designed so that everyone gets their limit. These were birds that lived in the 90’s and early 2000’s when the population was strong
 
KY wild said:
I hear someone bragging every year about killing a bird at 70-80 yards, worst part not even calling them in, just ambushing at 80 yards. I don't know how much it hurts the population since it is only males I am hearing but it does not seem like fair chase.
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For every one they killed at 70-80 they probably wounded a dozen. Lots of dead birds will go to waste promoting shots that far.....
 
T-Max said:
For every one they killed at 70-80 they probably wounded a dozen. Lots of dead birds will go to waste promoting shots that far.....
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I have an ongoing email with my region director for the state about Turkey issues. I sent him this last night. He responded with the same thing. As many are killed more are wounded.
 
Who is "he"?
 
Howboutthemdawgs said:
I got an idea…let’s make a video on how we can decimate it even further. He’d promote a colon cleanse if they gave him a nickel. Top 2-3 biggest sell outs in the outdoor industry. These shells should 100% be illegal.

View attachment 74953He's just doing a video. The ammo was not created by him. Blame the manufacture if anyone.
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I suppose it's like anything else, it's how you apply it. Perhaps encouraging people to apply it... questionably, isn't great.

I hunt with 10ga and 3 1/2" TSS 12ga. I can THEORETICALLY kill turkeys a long ways away. I like having the option/ability. Have I ever taken advantage of it? No.

Of course it's been 6 (?) years since "we" have even had a potential shot on a bird. (my hunting partner didn't shoot)
I myself haven't killed a bird in... 20 years? 25 years? (but still hunting 3-5 days a year)


Growing Deer has some good information in it. Unfortunately the other 80% of it is filler and ads.
It always reminds me of the interview at the end of a NASCAR race.
 
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Hopefully most guys won't shoot that far. I realize members here aren't a good cross section of the turkey hunting fraternity, but show of hands, how many are pulling the trigger at 70 yards? I still think social media and youtube are doing more damage than a shell.
 
I use 20ga TSS and my max range is 40 yds. I’ve never pulled the trigger on more than 1 turkey a year. Of all the things I get mad at turkey hunters about, this ranks pretty low.

But I agree that Woods has gotten a little hard to enjoy these days. That intern, employee he has now is a little cringey to me.
 
Monkey see, monkey do. The internet seems to encourage the worst things in EVERYTHING. In the hunting world, long range "hunting" seems to be one of those things. Be it rifles, muzzleloaders, bows or turkey guns. None of it a good thing, none of it helping hunting at large.

(Hunting in quotes because there would seem to be a strong inverse correlation between the two, the greater the distances increase, the less hunting that's being done. The animals just become targets of opportunity.)
 
Mortenson said:
Hopefully most guys won't shoot that far. I realize members here aren't a good cross section of the turkey hunting fraternity, but show of hands, how many are pulling the trigger at 70 yards? I still think social media and youtube are doing more damage than a shell.
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The problem is, you are relying on people to self govern themselves. That works for some of us, but I think most will do what the technology allows to punch that tag
 
Brian662 said:
I believe he's referring to Grant Woods from growing deer.tv

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Thanks Brian! I have heard of him and watched some of his stuff. I'm not real up to date on some of these guys though so didn't put it together. Most of my research comes from classes I've taken and believe it or not... range management and cattle health concepts.
 
Howboutthemdawgs said:
The problem is, you are relying on people to self govern themselves. That works for some of us, but I think most will do what the technology allows to punch that tag
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I know. I was just hoping for more faith in sportsmen. All we can do is self govern. Keep building your farm size and protect some birds. I'll have a new 1st time turkey hunter in a few weeks. He'll have a shell of 20 gauge tss 9, but we'll set up for a shot around 22-23 yards. If the birds hang up then we'll have some nice memories and pictures of the hunt that wasn't meant to be.
 
My son bought a couple boxes of 12 ga TSS a few years ago, patterned it, didnt care for it, and went back to Longbeards at about a 1/4 the price. He gave the TSS to me. The first time I went - for whatever reason, I crippled a turkey with the TSS at about 35 yards and finished him off at 50 yards with a longbeard.

It kind of brought me too my senses. I have killed over a hundred turkeys in my life and never thought my ammo was lacking. Forty yards is about my max shot. I hunt them TO GET THEM IN CLOSE. There are multitudes of non tss loads that are great for that - in a 12 ga. To me, the benefit of tss was to make the smaller gauges, with lighter guns, truly lethal when turkey hunting. If I was traveling around hunting several states like I used to, I would be toting a dedicated 20 ga turkey gun shooting tss. But I am not and have absolutely no use for it.
 
Mortenson said:
I know. I was just hoping for more faith in sportsmen. All we can do is self govern. Keep building your farm size and protect some birds. I'll have a new 1st time turkey hunter in a few weeks. He'll have a shell of 20 gauge tss 9, but we'll set up for a shot around 22-23 yards. If the birds hang up then we'll have some nice memories and pictures of the hunt that wasn't meant to be.
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That’s a good attitude. I’ve had so many awesome hunts that didn’t end in a kill. That’s a totally acceptable outcome! If every hunt ended in success, eventually none of the hunts would end in a success
 
Howboutthemdawgs said:
The problem is, you are relying on people to self govern themselves. That works for some of us, but I think most will do what the technology allows to punch that tag
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I agree 100% - if a turkey hangs up at sixty yards and it is do or die - a lot of hunters are pulling the trigger with tss.
 
Howboutthemdawgs said:
The problem is, you are relying on people to self govern themselves. That works for some of us, but I think most will do what the technology allows to punch that tag
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It's always the same story, right? Tech has advanced in such a way that hunting has become easier to being successful. Unfortunately to combat that, we either have to let our resource become the victim or ask for the heavy hand of the gov't agencies to get involved.

It's a tough call to make, but when the gov't gets involved it so rarely ends up the way we want it to.
 
Brian662 said:
It's always the same story, right? Tech has advanced in such a way that hunting has become easier to being successful. Unfortunately to combat that, we either have to let our resource become the victim or ask for the heavy hand of the gov't agencies to get involved.

It's a tough call to make, but when the gov't gets involved it so rarely ends up the way we want it to.
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Agreed with that said, if it wasn’t for the government I would say our game species would be depleted. When left up to our devices I’d say our track record is pretty bad on resource management.
 
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