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All those jakes I let go the last 2 years grew up.
Why don't we get a Sunday in spring turkey season to hunt?
Great pics Art and thanks for sharing them!
I've been seeing quite a few strutters in my travels for work recently and am looking forward to trying to kill one with my recurve this season.
"Why don't we get a Sunday in spring turkey season to hunt?" I'm hoping we get to hunt EVERY Sunday before too long!
Best of luck to you and everyone that will be chasing Mr. Tom and stay safe!
Had been seeing them almost everyday. The long beards have dispersed already and a few jakes still around. One jake has a foot injury growth and we call him gimpy. He spends most of his in the day in the neighbors flower garden. I believe I could actually catch and release him:) Have also seen a couple bearded hens in my travels.
I was beginning to think everyone on the Pa bowsite died. Almost two weeks, no posts. Bring on Turkey season ! I have not made it out in the evening looking for birds, but have been seeing them out in field on my drives. I got a new spot to try and have been seeing birds out in those fields. I just don't know if anyone else will be hunting around this spot??
My favorite spot that I almost always see and get a bird going, I have to walk to, to hear or see any. I'm hoping the grass is still to wet to cut tomorrow, time to get out. Ed
My neighbor is timbering 50 yards from the second picture but he says he still sees them there. I saw them today right behind the first picture this morning, so it does not seem to be scaring them away.
Perry got his first Clarion county buck a few years ago near the third picture.
I was thinking the same thing today Art! (Why don’t we get a Sunday in May?! ;-)
I like the pic you got right before the 4 gobblers started sparing. I call it “Reds vs Blues!” : )
It's good to see that someone still has turkeys in their area. Here in eastern Berks they are about as common as the ring neck pheasant. And we used to be polluted with turkeys. There is something very bad going on with the turkey population in some parts of the state and the Game Commission seems to have their head in the sand about it.
I agree! It's not often I disagree with the Game Commission. Now let me say I have not hunted fall turkey in years. To busy hunting other things to chase them. But if a turkey cames by my stand, yes I would take the opportunity. I don't take calls or chase them if I'm walking to my stand in fall and come across them.
Getting rid of rifles in fall to bring numbers up, was not the main reason for doing so. It was to bow to the NWTF. With the turkey population down, now was the time to use the "Get rid of rifle card" so that the NWTF and the GC didn't look bad. The NWTF has been opposed to rifle use for years, even when the turkey population was high. The NWTF knows that their membership is not based on fall turkey and their sponsors don't make much money off fall turkey hunting.
Now you can't change the spring weather to help. But getting rid of rifle is not going to save that many turkey that it will bring the population back. Getting rid of the fur taker license would of did more to bring back the turkey. When turkey numbers where at some of it's highest, anyone with a hunting license could shoot or trap a predator, so that meant that at one point we had 1.2 million that could take predators, now only 40k. Don't you think that by reducing the predator numbers that are out there, day and night 365, hunting for eggs, to poults, to adults would save more. If the turkey numbers come back because of, say 3 very good dry springs, do you think the GC is going to allow rifles back?? I say no! Rifles are done deal for fall turkeys!! If the turkey numbers keep dropping, I bet the NWTF is going to push for other reasons to bring the numbers up. I see the only other thing to try would be to reduce the number of predators. Now how could we do that? 5$ predator licenses or get rid of the predator license all together to get the number of folks out hunting from 40 k to 650k a chance to take all predators. As there less turkey hunters, which there is. There will be less turkey hunters to join turkey hunting organizations and buy less stuff from their sponsors?
I completely agree that the issue doesn't have much to do with fall turkey or using rifles in the fall. We don't have a fall season here in 5C and our turkey population still collapsed. While predators are an issue, they are not the total problem as predators are pretty evenly spread across the state. If predators were the problem, the whole state would have serious population issues. There is something else going on, most likely a disease of some sort. The PGC denies West Nile is the issue, but if you look at PA statistics for West Nile positives, you will find that the areas with declining turkey populations line up with the counties with a higher number of West Nile positives.
Im just saying that reducing Predator numbers by just 10% would do more than reducing the numbers killed by rifles. They killed 466 fall turkey in 3c in 2019. Of that 38% were killed by rifle, thats only about 177 for all of 3c killed by rilfe. Back in the 90s when Turkey numbers where high I didnt see half, maybe less that half the numbers of predators. Never saw bobcats, but I do see a few a year, fisher about one a year, fox and others more now than when turkey numbers were high. Im sure that most know that predators play a bigger roll with turkey numbers than rifle hunters do.
Heard 3 shots on the youth opener, all from the same hunter. And had two road kill turkeys near the house.
