Has anyone from New Mexico or someone that went this year seen dry conditions that were enough to affect hunting and/or probably affect recruitment? Have talked to some people that hunted out there this year that said it was as dry as they had ever seen and honestly felt like the turkeys were in survival mode. It never even crossed my mind that it could get dry enough to really affect the hunting but then again I only hunt out there every now and again.
We basically had no snow pack, so run off was non existent! We had some wet weather recently but not enough to catch up!
Not sure what effect it will have on recruitment, we shall see.
We need a bomber monsoon season or lot's of critters are going to be in trouble!
Have not checked lately, but prior to season we were at less than 50% of total snow fall, several roads were open for season that are typically closed, I drove right up a road to a mesa that typically has several feet of snow on it around the opener!
I've read where Rios in S. Texas didn't breed during a severe drought over the course of a spring. Seems like it was the big drought of 2011. Evidently it is a survival mechanism for turkeys to not reproduce in those cases.
There was definitely breeding going on in New Mexico and Southern Colorado so we shall see what happens.
Basically have been in a drought for years, 24 spring had tons of snow, however the warm up was really quick and intense and by mid summer that moisture was gone!
I would love to send y'all some of the rain we have been getting. Pretty sure it has rained at least 10-11 of the last 14 days.