S Carolina changing turkey bag limits and season dates

[Dr Juice]

Season dates only apply to private land. All public stays the same.

As Ricky said, it is all political and no biology. They are using way out dated data. We whined and moaned about things they do not understand and politics won out over biology.


Sent from the Strut Zone

I concur.

[Smooth_Operator]

I don't mind the bag limit change so much, as I hunt other states as well.  The season change, don't mind that either...you low country guys get one day less, us upstate guys gain quite a few.  Nothing to complain about really...don't see it making much of a change either way in our turkey population though...

[SKFOOTER]

Tennessee should have done the same thing but we have some narrow minded Commissioners that believe everything the state's turkey biologists tell them.   Our turkey population is heading for a train wreck!!!

[RemingtonRules]

Tennessee should have done the same thing but we have some narrow minded Commissioners that believe everything the state's turkey biologists tell them.   Our turkey population is heading for a train wreck!!!

Wreck has already happened just waiting on the state to arrive at the scene.

I would rather a state be conservative.  No harm in saving too many   

[THattaway]

IMO you can't stockpile turkeys and this has nothing to do with "saving". It's a misconception that this is due to overharvest. SC has supported a 5 bird limit for over 30 years. Seems to me it would have train wrecked long before now if it was due to limits. It's always swung up and down and with good recruitment came good harvest. You can't kill them if they ain't making more.

Ruth was against the 5 bird limit from the start, has said as much. I don't think the lowering to 3 is excessive but I sure as heck don't think it will impact the population one bit. Population is more about weather influence in May, habitat and predators. Dry springs and good nesting habitat mean there are turkeys where I hunt even with the coyotes.

[Paladin85]

Of course if taken to the extreme, hunting harvests can have drastic effects on turkey populations as was once realized in America's history before game regulations were firmly established. However, in the present era, I, too don't think the reduction in limit from 5 to 3 will really matter for the turkey population. SCDNR data (20,000 random hunters surveyed) from 2014 season indicated that 45,949 hunters (about 50% of those licensed with turkey tags) hunted an average of 5 days in 2014. Only 22% (10,108 hunters) were successful. Most hunters (97.5%) killed 1 or 2 gobblers, but 2.5% (1149 hunters) of the total hunters killed 3+ birds (averaged 3.67), which represented about 26% (4224 gobblers) of the total gobblers killed. The results of research (I have read) conducted in NY and other states have indicated that hunter harvests are most affected by turkey population density, weather, and length of the turkey season while turkey population density is most affected by weather and habitat. Ironically, I wonder if the lengthened Upstate season might even enable a significantly greater number of hunters to kill 3 birds, which could increase the total annual harvest. Just a thought.

[RutnNStrutn]

Turkey season will be longer.....

Where does the guy writing that article get that turkey season will be longer? We start 5 days later, and end 4 days later. That's a loss of one day.

The longer season was only available in the low country.  The rest of the state started April 1, ended May 1.

Gotcha. That's where my friends and I hunt, in the Lowcountry.

[RutnNStrutn]

As for this spring? Well the garden is dry as a bone except when I've watered it. That means awesome conditions for this year's hatch where the habitat is good. Lot's of talk about coyotes and am sure they take their toll but where I find good habitat I find turkeys year after year after year.

Interesting. Thanks for the reply!
I hunt down in the Lowcountry. We've had a very wet spring, and the hunting was the worst I've experienced in the 7 springs I've hunted there. We also have lots of yotes. I saw several in broad daylight while hunting this spring.

[howl]

All this dry weather will make for lots of gobbling in 2017. Those that wanted the reduced limit will take credit when it was just a change in weather. That's what you get when you throw science out the window in favor on social inputs.