Spring gobbler season
West Virginia
It should be close to time when harvest numbers come out. From what I saw and heard I bet we'll be down around 20%.
Turkey numbers are down and It looks like hunter numbers are down. It takes a lot of dedication and perseverance to keep at it when you're not seeing or hearing anything. With the turkey numbers down I think a lot of hunters are giving up after not hearing any gobbling for 3-4 days.
Before all the season starts too late comments come in, this is my better half with a gobbler that she had been after for 5-6 days. It came in silent on the 3rd Saturday, but she couldn't get a shot at it and never gobbled until the last Thursday when it gobbled over a hundred times the hour before she killed it. I was sleeping in that day at the cabin.
I was proud of her perseverance and patience
X&$!, I don't know why I can't post a picture from an iPhone. The 2nd one I anticipated it rotating it counter-clockwise but it didn't.
I thought we talked about this before but I can't remember nuttin!
cool picture. tell her congrats
Wow. that bird is almost as big as she is. Her nickname should be gobbler not yours. LOL. I heard too that the hunting was down. I also hear that the trout fishing is down by 30 percent as well. What gives?
Congratulations on the bird! Persistence does pay off!
On the last day of the season I went out to help a friend. The first place we went to had no gobbling. He said that he had another place within 20 a minute drive so off we went. We got a bird started and ended up calling him in. I was sitting at the same tree as he was and I was looking over his left shoulder. I could have shot the bird three times! The closest and last time at 25 yards! My friend did not have good shot. Amazing what a difference a foot variance in viewing can make. tI was one of the better gobbling and strutting birds that I was on all season.
Now Gobbler......... how did you do the I-phone photo???
Look over in the main forums, I posted there and there is a good discussion about it. Better than I can explain . It's titled I-phone pictures. But it's funny, the day I posted it, bowsite came out with a fix that is supposed to come up when you post a picture. I haven't posted again since. But it can explain it better than I can. I think there's another thread with a notice also.
I just sent both threads to the top of the main forums
Last year when the kill was higher the results were released on May 24th. It already June 6th and it hasn't been released. That's never good news. It will probably be released right before closing today in the hope most everyone will forget it over the weekend.
Just like I figured. Curtis is using Obama tactics by releasing bad news on a friday afternoon hoping it will not be picked up on or forgotten by monday. LOL
Thanks Gobbler and wow you sure do get results fast!
So the hunter numbers are down. Wonder why?
P.E.T.A. Abductions and kidnapping most likely I'd say. Other factors like overall lower turkey population, economy, working people trying to keep their job not taking time off from work, lazy hunters, aging population of hunters not physically able to run and gun in the mountains like they used to. Hunter access issues to private land that holds more turkey than public land, younger hunters wanting quick results not having the patience required for consistent success. It's just plain hard to get up at 3:30-4:00 am for days at a time. More older experienced turkey hunters not shooting jakes. The novelty of turkey hunting has worn out and only the hard core go day after day after day. Turkey hunters and landowners volunterely reducing their limit due to lower turkey numbers . With a lower population of turkey it takes exponentially more time and effort to achieve success. With few exceptions the days of getting on multiple gobbers during a morning hunt is over for the time being at least and possibly forever. 15 years ago you could get on and work 4 or 5 gobblers a morning, now 1 or 2 is a great morning. Some hunters don't have an experienced turkey hunter to take them and show them how to turkey hunt and they get frustrated and quit. Some watch videos andTV shows and expect to set up a blind and decoys and expect to have herds of gobblers come strutting by, and after a few hours of nothing happening they give up cause they don't know what else to do.
I'm sure there are a few more reasons too, so take your pick.
Gobbler has pretty much covered all the bases. I think the TV factor is a larger impact than many of us think, even if it is subconscious, especially with younger/newer hunters. They don't have personal experience with which to compare modern gobbler hunting, but they do have the TV shows where hunters talk, fart, move their hands, drink coffee and still have a choice of six or seven dumb Midwestern birds to shoot -- with a bow even. Bowhunting for deer without using bait, spring gobbler hunting and fall turkey hunting are real hunting experiences and success doesn't happen quickly, at least most of the time. Retired W.Va. DNR Wildlife Biologist Gary Strawn, Romney, used the term "fast food hunters" meaning people who want to shoot their game quickly and head home to do other things. I think he is on to something.
Good points. Young hunters are used to seeing people have success easily
I agree with gobbler on several reasons on why the lower hunter numbers - economy being the biggest reason. Hard to go out day after day when gas is almost $4/gal. Thankfully I can go right out the front door and see a turkey! If this would have been 8 years ago you would have never heard the end of how terrible Bush is because of gas prices - now everyone is just accepting this crap. My father and uncle drove everywhere throughout WV and Virginia to hunt turkeys - they would never be able to afford to do something like that now. They would get up at 1 or 2 in the morning drive 3 or 4 hours to hunt and head home at lunch but not getting home till dinner time! Once they were retired they did it everyday of the season. If you did that today it would cost you $80 to $100 per day. Its plain ridiculous! But yet we have accepted this stuff. Think about how much a one day hunt actually cost you anymore - put in all the factors! Heck even if you hunt close to home it is not pocket change anymore. I thank the good lord above he has blessed my family with my wife and myself having good jobs! Even with a good job though it does not take long to empty your wallet these days - right now its the reason why I get testy over such ideas as higher license fees, additional tags or one and done limits (meaning if I want to hunt more I would have to spend more money to go out of state). I worry all the time about how all of this will effect the future of my kids - how will they ever be able to do the things that I have been fortunate enough to have been able to do - but as a country we have accepted it - what a bummer of a thought to go to bed on! :-(
We had plenty of gobblers here in Nicholas County all the way to the end. Great hunting. Maybe a lack of two year olds, but not for the dedicated hunter.
We have plenty of birds. Season dynamics are different for various geographic regions of the state, but I am happy with the turkey hunting here in good ole WV.
good points. we keep paying the ragheads for gas
I remember 15-20 years ago at times I could hear dozens of gobblers. It was like there were gobblers in every tree on every ridge for as far as you could hear. It was surreal. . I almost never heard less than 10-12. Now in those same places I'll usually hear 2-3, sometimes 5-6, sometimes none.
We still have a decent population on my place, but nothing like it was in the mid-nineties thru early 2 thousands.
Same here. Population seems lower the last 4 or so years than it was. I try to start scouting in early March because all birds are usually gobbling. Not hard to still hear 6-8 or even a dozen but, by the time the season gets here they have figured out who has that right, which reduces the gobbling steadily.
One thing I've noticed is that we are having fewer spring frosts the least several years versus in the past. We go from cold to hot. No middle ground, and no 30 degree cool, still mornings during the season. Which are the days I hear the most and hear them later in the morning on average. It seems to me those years that we don't get the 50-60 degree days, the 25 to 30 degree nights into early May, the season is harder. I translate it into the hens not having to be on the nest as much to incubate the eggs. No proof of it, just my opinion. And if they aren't setting, they are holding gobblers.
There are plenty of turkeys in the woods. Not as many as before but, still plenty. You just got to get the time to get after them, and as Jay D suggests, the fiances to do it. We used to travel to other areas of the state if ours were not in the right phase but, with a weekend trip looking to cost $300-$400 on average, I'll just save my money and vacation for a summer smallmouth trip to the Shenandoah River. God Bless
I think you are on to a good point about the weather. Of course last year we had snow on opening day. LOL
But overall I think you may be on to something. I hadn't thought of it that way.( see, I can learn something from someone else's opinion). But you're right, not as many of those days, and I too think they gobble better in the cooler weather. Seems like anymore its 80 degrees by 9 am.
I too like cooler weather and think they gobble better - but can't explain why they are still gobbling like crazy here around the house right now! This morning heard turkeys everywhere and they gobbled their heads off! Actually I have been hearing them gobble like this for over a week now....
That's what makes them so fun to hunt. You can get good at killing them, but ain't nobody going to figure them out. They do what they want when they want. With their little brain they probably don't know why they do what they do. It's all imprinting and instinct.
I hate em. I had a bird gobbling 50 yards from me this year that I could not see. There was only one lil spot where I could not see him and he would gobble there and then gobble 100 yards away in a field where I could see him. 5 minutes later he would be behind the trees in that one lil spot where I could not see him. I hate em. Then the next day he wouldn't gobble. 2 days later he would carry on. I can't figure them out.
Nobody can figure them out. They don't even know what they are going to do.
I saw a big flock last week. Had three gobblers strutting around in it. 5 hens. Gobblers were mature. Probably two year olds. I also saw a hen with 12 little ones friday. Weird. God Bless
Took grandson to French creek game farm this Thursday that gobbler in pen was gobbling his head of 11 am ,,,
Did you set up on him George?. I might hsve to go to a game farm to get one.
Don't let Walt Helmick know, he'll be trying to pass high fence and netted gobbler hunts in the Ag.division next year.
