turkey population

arrowsonly · 06-06-2008, 04:53 AM

Were did all the turkeys go?

I hunted both WI & MN and saw only 1 gobbler in the woods as I was walking out of my blind set up on the last day of my season...
One morning in MN I did have 4/5 toms gobble over 500 times,the following day they gobbled less than 100!
In WI I did not see a single bird after 72 hours in the woods, not even a hen!
This is zone 23, were over 10,000 tags per week are issued...

kingvjack · 06-06-2008, 05:51 AM

It may be over hunting.... Or you may suck?
Just kidding, I noticed the numbers sucked this year as well, I think the rains last spring destroyed alot of nests... I didn't have one jake enter a set up. nor did I hear one.

Haus/WI · 06-06-2008, 03:00 PM

I also hunt turkeys in WI in zone 17and about 4 years ago we could see 50 turkeys atonceon just a smallfarm. Even driving around there would be turkeysin tons of fields. Then a few years ago they just seemed to disappear from that area. Gobbles were few and far between and turkeys were hard to come by. It wasn't just one spot it was all over the area. This year we got one tom and there seemed to be an increase in numbers. I'm hoping there isn't a bad hatch this year because it seems like there have been a lot of areas with bad storms and a lot ofhail. By the way do coons have an effect on the nesting results?

JW · 06-06-2008, 05:41 PM

This year in WI there was a definite winter kill due to amount of heavy snow and ice in my area. I talked to a county worker who told me while plowing roads it was not uncommon to plow aside dead turkeys. AND the number of birds I saw indicated just that.

SoI cruised a few known winter roosts (Pine stands) and sure enough I found enough turkey bones to make me beleive many just didn't make it. I certainly hope for a good hatch too!

JW

MrGobbler43 · 06-07-2008, 05:49 AM

I hunted a half a dozen states and to me Ohio in the southern areas was down a bit northen areas were up Pa was at its normal and Ky was up this year as far as the hatch here this spring if the eggs made it past the predators the weathers been great we should have a good hatching

Mrgobbler

ultimag · 06-07-2008, 09:25 AM

I also noticed a decrease in bird numbers in northern Idaho.Lots of snow this past winter. The birds were smaller also compared to our records that go back about 8 yrs. We shot aloot of birds that only weighed about 16-17 lbs compared to the 20-21 lb birds of years past.

louddrummer69 · 06-07-2008, 11:28 AM

They're all in Missouri!

IL-Cornfed · 06-07-2008, 02:30 PM

We had a good hatch last season and a wild winter so our turkey numbers were great this season in Illinois. In fact, this season was the 2nd best turkey harvest ever recorded in IL. Had it not been for some miserable cold and windy weeks right at the start of our season I know we would have easily beat that all-time record mark.

Adrian J Hare · 06-07-2008, 08:16 PM

Ontario was down as well this season. What I see is the same as Gobbler if the area has had a few bad hatch rates then it will show one season. This was the season. For the large then normal jake pop. I seen this spring, they will become adults next spring...

superstrutter · 06-07-2008, 08:36 PM

The downfall of turkey populations in my area is due to clear cutting. No harsh winters down here. No good hatches for the past four years. I hunted in Tennessee also, and the numbers were way down where I was hunting. I didn't see a single jake either, which doesn't look too good for next year.