Kansas turkeys! Where did they go?

drakeb3 · 05-17-2009, 05:06 PM

Has anyone else seen a decline in the turkey population in kansas from last year til this year?

jghoffman12 · 05-18-2009, 02:40 PM

I have to say I was thinking the same thing the first few weeks of the season. I wasn't seeing as many birds and certainly didn't hear as many gobbling in the mornings. I've hunted hard the last 2 weeks and finally started seeing birds, especially late afternoon and evening. I finally bagged a pair of Toms last night justbefore sundown. They are out there but I'd agree the numbers are down a bit from what I'm used to seeing.

drakeb3 · 05-18-2009, 04:07 PM

Usually it takes us about a day to limit out when we go to kansas! We have private land in central and east kansas that is usually packed with birds. Over the course of 4 days we saw one long beard and not many jakes! I was wonderin if it was the weather the last couple of springs and winter, or was the massive of amount of hunting pressure!

Howler · 05-19-2009, 04:59 AM

I hunt in Cloud, Ottawa, and Clay countys and there was no shortage of birds this year. What we noticed was that they didn't disperse as early as usual from thier winter flocks.

gbrownlee · 05-19-2009, 05:34 AM

Where I hunt we had the birds, many, many birds

But I have heard of parts of the state being down a bit. I wouldnt be surprised to hear it was the hunting pressure. I have killed birds with .22 and .17 cal. slugs in them from road hunters. I have also heard of local kids killing any turkey they see because the farmers hate them digging up their crops. I sure hope its not that but with the lack of game wardens that state has it wouldn't surprise me at all.

vmartin · 05-19-2009, 09:26 AM

i see no drop in the population in kansas. it must be only the spots you are seeing. the poaching is just too bad in kansas.

the poaching is a result of both not enough game wardens, and the fact that every single game wardens only watch public land. they only go out to public land for opening weekend of every season and sit there in a group to talk. i have never in my life seen them spread out to watch any problem areas like onaga.

infact, i caught 3 poachers this weekend. iidentified their vehicle attheir highschool yesterday. since i don't have enough solid proof to turn over, i will only be able to scare them with a phone call.

drakeb3 · 05-19-2009, 10:37 AM

I think the poaching has alot to do with it, you can tell the birds around butler county get shoot at off the road alot! Ive got some buddies that hunt up in morris county and they saw all kinds of birds! Guess im gonna have to start knockin on doors and find some new leases farther north!

jghoffman12 · 05-19-2009, 12:14 PM

I'd agree with Howler. They are still in larger flocks. Driving between Wichita and Topeka over the weekend I saw 4 different flocks of 15 or more birds in late afternoon. Normally they are dispersed that late in the day. The last couple years, the hunting has been much better late in the season partially because of our crazy spring weather.

BetterBirddogs · 05-20-2009, 07:52 AM

I killed mine early when the birds were aggressive. It seems to me now that the toms get henned up later in the afternoon when they should be split up like others have said. We're hunting down by Chanute and there is no shortage of birds but just when we get them patterned again we get 3 inches of rain and the little creeks on our places are 50 yards wide and the birds change again completely.