Turkeys struggling?

[Jimss]

Is anyone else in a quandary in regard to where to gobbler hunt in 2022? Unfortunately turkey numbers in my dependable turkey spot in Nebraska has crashed from several hundred birds in tree rows several years ago to only a handful of turkeys in 2021.

The number of turkey hunters here in Colo has pretty much exploded the past few years in OTC units and tag numbers in just about every limited unit is 2 to 3x what they were several years ago.

Is anyone else struggling with trying to figure out a decent spot to hunt gobblers recently with the decline in turkey populations and increase in hunting pressure in many Western and Midwest states?

 

[Dexter Grayson]

Sounds like you should just hunt the Colorado OTC Units.

But yes, I’ve seen steady decline of Turkey populations in all the states I hunt.

 

[Cmullarkey]

I have experienced much the same down here in the SE part of the United States.

 

[HuntInWild88]

Yup same here in Idaho. Decline for sure! Also a decline on my old family farm back in Indiana. Used to wake up and here birds one every point of every ridge. Now we are lucky to even have one on the farm.

 

[dtrkyman]

Severe decline in some areas, NE Missouri is a shadow of it's former self, Illinois is way down in areas and Nebraska, Kansas and OK. are way down.

Look up DR. Michael Chamberlain, he has an Instagram page and has been on a lot of podcasts recently talking about reasons for turkey decline. Some really interesting info!

I hunted CO. for the first time last year, last week of season and I could tell the birds had been pressured hard where I found them, problem was I couldn't get on any elsewhere. Killed one over a water hole the last day of season.

 

[FLATHEAD]

Same here in parts of the SE.

 

[woods89]

It's tanked pretty hard here in South central MO.

 

[bradb]

Down for sure here in WI

 

[Laramie]

Our populations in Central Nebraska have crashed pretty hard. SE Nebraska still has a decent population but it is mainly private and tougher to get on to hunt. It has gotten tougher, no doubt. There are still good numbers on the Platte & Loup if you can gain private permission.

 

[Sccritterkiller]

Used to get 5 tags here...now you only get 3 and you only use one the 1st 10 days of season...and NR tags are now 100 bucks for 2....SC home of NWTF.

 

[FLATHEAD]

Those 5 bird limits prolly havent helped anything.
Nor has the huge tracts of monoculture pines.

 

[Thess87]

Kansas went from 2 to 1 bird a couple years ago and besides the birds I guide for, my wife and daughter and I haven’t hunted in a few years. I figure if there declining that bad on there own I don’t want to help them. It’s sucks cause my daughter was just getting to where we could run and gun and really enjoy it together.

 

[Scottf270]

People better get out and trap predators. I have started as a novice trapper.

Last year I ran 7 dog proof traps a month or so and caught 15 coons and 9 possums on about 200 acres.

This year I'm at 9 coons , 10 possums, 2 coyotes, and a red fox. This is on just 94 acres of the original 200.

I haven't managed to tag one of the several bobcat I have on camera. It's a wonder there's any game left at all.

 

[ceejay]

All the areas I hunted in WV and KY have a very noticeable drop in turkeys the past 5-10 years. For several years I have seen very little if any spring broods of poults. The 2021 spring gave me a glimmer of hope as I and others saw more poults than in previous years.

 

[Sccritterkiller]

Those 5 bird limits prolly havent helped anything.
Nor has the huge tracts of monoculture pines.

The pines have always been there and limt was fine for years...its something else. I do think lack of trapping has something to do with it...from the time that egg hits the ground something is after it.

 

[Fordguy]

In my part of Oklahoma, numbers of coons, possums, coyotes, and bobcats are out of control. My neighbors all tell me that a decade ago it was common to see flocks of 40-50 turkeys moving around the neighborhood. I've been here 4 years and the largest group of turkeys I've seen has had 5 birds. Last year the largest group I saw was a single hen, 2 jakes and a tom. The limit was changed to a single bird state wide starting this spring and the season date was moved for a later start, but it's too little too late.

 

[Zappaman]

Central Kansas is down for sure, but get up around Topeka and they say they are just as plentiful as past years? I didn't hunt last year and probably won't this year. Now if white fronted/blue geese would just fly a LITTLE lower

I had about 3000 geese fly over me tonight in the hot tub... it was a continuous "sound" of geese for 30 minutes at sundown.

I hope one day the state initiates a program like we had in NM years ago where they paid trappers... Way to many raccoons and coyotes around here for sure! But I'll do my part with the new Creedmoor (with 100g's) and my 1000 yard light this spring-- just tossed some deer carcasses out tonight JUST for that endeavor.

 

[BoatsAndBows]

In IN the populations aren’t great, but aren’t bad. The 1 bird limit helps. The thing I notice most is hunting pressure has gone way up.

 

[lastcast33]

I thought they were struggling all across the country but I read that they are a nuisance in Wyoming in another thread.

 

[Zappaman]

I hunt some private and some public areas and am out in the field year-round as I live in the middle of a wildlife refuge I hunt (morels too) and fish. I do see both public or leased hunting activity around my corner of the county- both friendly local and out-of-state hunters come around my little town of 500.

In talking with framers and ranchers pretty regularly, they will all say the last few years the turkeys more like just "disappeared" - like a UFO abduction Vs. hunting pressure. And I can agree that the refuge has had no more hunting pressure than previous years as I haven't seen more hunters out in the field than usual (on openers or end-of-season). But the turkey are down some the last three years or so.

My long-time retired hunting buddy (42 yr wildlife biologist) has said it's more driven by weather patterns not aligning with optimal breeding/hatching seasons (*where just a week or two of the wrong weather makes or breaks the whole thing). But he'll also agree varmints can be a compounding factor where they can have "optimal" breeding occur during the same time-frame as the turkey is having a "bad" breeding season.

He's seen 65% of white-tail populations whipped out in the SW (a few times). He'd tell you the weather causes it (lack of rain in spring in the whitetail cases above), and that the varmints are the ones who "clean it up" (*and naturally grow in population while doing it).

And when the news gets out (a year after the coyotes, coons, etc ate REAL good turkey) we (used to) go kill a few more than usual. We established trapping programs and did some good (and some bad) but in general- we had the biologists (and their bosses) IN THE FIELD (with hunters) more back then- than today.

My buddy and I would like to see more (managed, one-time) "special seasons" where the hunters are included in the solution to "managing" wildlife. I think there are programs like this in certain states, but it would be nice to have more interaction between "management" and "customers" in the land management game going forward.