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Turkey #’s & one observation….

I am seeing the same lack of birds. Hardly see them driving from the DSM area to Ringgold almost every week. I do rarely get trail cam pics of them, but not many at all and I'm part of a huge block of timber that should be holding tons of them.
I will say I get coon, bobcat and yote pics more often than turkeys, which seems to be correlated.
 
Ironic timing!!!! I am walking in the door & ran a skid steer into dark…. Pulling out of farm tonight & drove up to a fresh Turkey kill…. Guessing a bobcat but who knows. That stuff doesn’t bother me so much. The nest raiders are bad.

K- so I’ll take a pretty wild but fairly accurate guess here…. Say we killed maybe 400-700 coons & possums in last calender year. Off a bunch of ground. Did this several years now…. They always start filling back in RIGHT NOW!! It’s down this year vs last & I think get easier every year.
For whatever reason, about February they start filling in again. Got depredation approval so they get wiped out through nesting season. We pummel them.
K- so last fall…. I bet I saw 15+ hen pheasants sitting in deer stand one night. Up til a couple years ago it would be noteworthy to see ONE. Then the turkeys….. the only reason I know they down is reading on here & talking to buddies that hunt hard core ALL OVER…. Down everywhere. I’m LOADED WITH TURKEYS!!! MILLIONS. Because we went to war on predators for years now.

IMO, down #’s all over is from 3 things. In this order….. #1 - people ain’t trapped for 8-10 years now…. Ya- we have a major problem!! When sections have HUNDREDS of coons- ya- these birds don’t stand much chance on a nest. #2 is a gut thing…. Neonics … like above said too…. My thoughts are adapting with info. It’s an issue but I don’t think it’s remotely as close as #1. I do think there’s something to it the more I read. They still get used around me like crazy & killing predators is eye opening at how impactful that is!!! Why #1 is way bigger IMO. & #3 ….. lack of cover. & I think it’s “minor”…. Hear me out…. Yes, dozing fence rows & removing CRP is very harmful. That alone destroys every animals existence. But I say it’s “minor” because in areas with premium cover- where it’s always been premium & used to be birds…. NOW, not many birds in many cases…. REVERT BACK TO #1 (& then after that #2)…. It’s the Frigin predators!!!! Premo cover, I don’t care how great it is…. When u have a farm full of GREMLINS that look like what happens when STRIPE jumped in that pool…. Ya- they destroy everything. I don’t Turkey hunt & I got sick of seeing every nest ripped to shreds. In areas with fantastic cover. It’s the dang predators & there’s a gazillion of them!!!!!!!! Kill the predators - especially nesting time & watch what happens to bird #’s!!!
 
DNR told me no on a permit and that distemper will eventually handle the coons. I'm hoping that the all year round law gets approved so landowners can take care of business. I used to trap, so I still have my equipment from years ago. Don't think I would have time to kill hundreds, but I can keep chipping away at them. Can't hurt.
 
cybball said:
DNR told me no on a permit and that distemper will eventually handle the coons. I'm hoping that the all year round law gets approved so landowners can take care of business. I used to trap, so I still have my equipment from years ago. Don't think I would have time to kill hundreds, but I can keep chipping away at them. Can't hurt.
Click to expand...
Hope it goes through too.
It takes maybe 25 mins a day to keep on em…. Set pile of traps & can leave em there “forever”…. Then it’s just refilling & setting …. Takes very little time to check the next morning …. Shoot & reset. Just need to remind self to do it & takes very little time. Like if a guy wanted to set half dozen traps on 80 acres…. Be super fast & easy to kill ‘em.
 
Just a comment from my experience...I completely agree with the notion that nest predators could be, and probably are, the #1 reason that turkey populations cannot bounce back once turk #'s are down in an area. To that point, I agree with all that has been said.

BUT...when our turkey population started diving 12'ish years ago we were commonly finding dead ADULT carcasses. In other words, coons and possums and other nest raiders weren't the culprit, as they could never catch enough healthy adult birds to impact the population to any degree.

What exactly killed those adults? I will never know for sure, but they were all consumed by the time we found them and some of them were partially buried, suggesting bobcat to me. Now then...did they die via whatever cause and then the next lucky meat eater that happened by found and enjoyed a free meal? I don't know...but I do know that these birds were fully adult and weren't killed as a poult or an egg.

I continue to be very, very interested in this topic, I would really like to be a part of a restoration...as the current population is really not even huntable IMO and I would like to take my grandson(s) turkey hunting some day, etc.

Nest raiders may be the #1 limiter, but there is more to this story than just a record number of coons in the timbers, at least IMO.
 
Daver said:
Just a comment from my experience...I completely agree with the notion that nest predators could be, and probably are, the #1 reason that turkey populations cannot bounce back once turk #'s are down in an area. To that point, I agree with all that has been said.

BUT...when our turkey population started diving 12'ish years ago we were commonly finding dead ADULT carcasses. In other words, coons and possums and other nest raiders weren't the culprit, as they could never catch enough healthy adult birds to impact the population to any degree.

What exactly killed those adults? I will never know for sure, but they were all consumed by the time we found them and some of them were partially buried, suggesting bobcat to me. Now then...did they die via whatever cause and then the next lucky meat eater that happened by found and enjoyed a free meal? I don't know...but I do know that these birds were fully adult and weren't killed as a poult or an egg.

I continue to be very, very interested in this topic, I would really like to be a part of a restoration...as the current population is really not even huntable IMO and I would like to take my grandson(s) turkey hunting some day, etc.

Nest raiders may be the #1 limiter, but there is more to this story than just a record number of coons in the timbers, at least IMO.
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Completely agree Daver. Not a single cause. My area has quite a few coons and bobcats. I have not found an adult dead turkey, but my place hasn't had many over the 5 years I have owned it. I'm hoping to start on the coons and create more and more cover that will benefit them (and deer). I turkey hunt over by Leon and the numbers there are decent, but that place is on permission, which doesn't ever last forever. Would love the numbers to be much better on my own place so me, my kids or eventually grandkids can hunt there.
 
Sligh1 said:
Hope it goes through too.
It takes maybe 25 mins a day to keep on em…. Set pile of traps & can leave em there “forever”…. Then it’s just refilling & setting …. Takes very little time to check the next morning …. Shoot & reset. Just need to remind self to do it & takes very little time. Like if a guy wanted to set half dozen traps on 80 acres…. Be super fast & easy to kill ‘em.
Click to expand...

Tough to do when where you hunt isnt where you live or a feasible distance to check traps daily. For most this is probably the case.
 
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