Are turkeys getting harder to kill?

[dtrkyman]

Pressure has increased, pressured turkeys are harder to kill!

 

[UKwildcatfan]

Public land, yes. Private, no.

 

[bluetick78]

Public land, yes. Private, no.

Depends on the private. I hunted 2 separate pieces of private last week with my son, about 2 miles apart. On one of them, the landowner lets anybody hunt and only has a few rules. Don't shoot in the yard, check in when you arrive and when you leave. The birds were there, but very skittish and call-shy. The other piece of private has lots of birds, but tons of rules, and only a few people have permission (i.e. family and close friends). The rules prevent you from setting up in natural travel routes, so you are trying to call birds away from where they want to be to stay within the landowners guidelines. Both present challenges similar to public land hunting, dealing with heavy pressure or calling from less-than-ideal setups to satisfy unusual requirements. We just ended up hunting public after a few tries on the private land. Less birds, but less rules. No birds killed.

 

[aachey]

In my area of PA i believe the population is actually up, and so is the hunting pressure. It's hard to get on birds that don't have someone on them already, or someone whose about to blow up your spot. That's public land, though.

 

[kpk]

Don’t even get me started on the amount of people you have to contend with now.

You don't think that contributes to educating them? Around here you usually get several to come in at the same time and I'd have to believe the survivors are going to start getting wary after a run in with a decoy and shotgun.

 

[Amos Keeto]

"Are turkeys harder to kill?"

Well, "NO!"! Center that golf ball sized noggin in your pattern and they crumple into a pile of feathers! LOL!

Now, getting one into position to shoot is whole other ball game!

I have public land within 1 mile. I refuse to hunt it. During deer season and turkey season, public land loads up with hunters. I have small private properties, so I just hunt them.
The hardest part of turkey hunting is knowing what phase they are in and how to hunt each phase.
This year, I suppose it was all the rain we had (14 inches!) but the turkeys seemed to be hung up between phases 2, 3 and 4!
I finally patterned a group of birds and just waited them out.
It worked!

 

[Roofer1]

No . Joking aside, maybe? past couple years in WI they seem to gobble their heads off in the roost then once they fly down, they clam up.

 

[WCB]

Mature Turkeys are the easiest thing to kill....not even a question.

 

[pnwhank]

I hunt north of Spokane.

Over the past five years the birds have definitely gotten a lot quieter. I've still had pretty good success, but they aren't nearly as vocal coming into a set.

It seems like anywhere you go the birds will be silent a week into the season. They're not dumb, they know we're out to get em.

 

[fatlander]

Pressure is the number one factor in killings turkeys. From every metric I can find, hunting pressure is steadily increasing.

Gobblers with hens are tough to kill early in the season. Later in the season, they’re easy to kill if they haven’t been pressured.

As turkey populations decline, there are less gobblers that don’t have hens early in the season and there are even less that aren’t pressured later in the season by the times hens are sitting on their nests.

So to sum it up, there’s less satellite birds that want to die early in the season. There’s less dominant gobblers that haven’t been pressured later in the season. Less turkeys with more pressure certainly makes it harder to kill turkeys that act like turkeys. Hunting them like deer should be on the Geneva convention for cruel and unusual punishment.

 

[sbtaylor]

Southeastern subspecies, specifically. But mainly because those seem to face the highest pressure.

I know the theory about gobbling being evolved out of turkeys based on harvest rates has floated around (and makes sense to me) but what is everyone else seeing?

I feel like 20 years ago, a turkey would be more vocal and more willing to come to a call. Now, it’s like 1 out of 10 at best. AND when they come in, it’s like a deer slipping in cover and sneaking around. Definitely get a suicidal one now and again, but I swear this is not the turkey I remember from the 90’s and early 2000’s.

Don’t even get me started on the amount of people you have to contend with now. Thanks THP and the pinhead guy that pets dead turkeys.

I think its region dependent for sure and directly related to pressure. Just like large game animals.

 

[deerhunt1988]

I hunt north of Spokane.

Over the past five years the birds have definitely gotten a lot quieter. I've still had pretty good success, but they aren't nearly as vocal coming into a set.

It seems like anywhere you go the birds will be silent a week into the season. They're not dumb, they know we're out to get em.

In your area, more of them dying early season than ever before. Thats why you aren't hearing them like you used to. That area is experiencing more hunting pressure than ever before, like a lot of areas throughout the U.S. The number of non-residents flocking that area is probably 2-3x what it was just a few years ago.