Question In Line With The Subject Of Resident and Non Resident Hunting

[idratherb]

I'll be out of popcorn on this one, holy smokes...

[Marc]

Let me clarify, my question had nothing to do with whether a person has the means financially, or the time and ability and family support to hunt all over the nation each year. I too would say just based on those unrelated factors to go for it as far hunting new places if one is able to do so. My question was posed on the angle of what can the turkey population sustain?

I will expose my ulterior motive in asking this question and it is not aimed at the non resident hunter or yourself, so please don't think otherwise. But - with all the data showing that the bottom is dropping out of the turkey population all across the country without hardly any exceptions, and then you see those saying that he/she is all for killing 20 or more birds if they have the means to do it - it is pretty easy to know that that individual does not have the turkey's best interest in mind.

A man insisting on killing 15-20 or more turkeys each spring with the turkey numbers down as bad as they are right now is kind of like a husband and wife sitting at the table and realizing that they only have 500 dollars left to spend for the month on un paid bills for them and the kids, and then the husband looks across the table and tells his wife that he is going to go and buy a Benelli M2 the next day and that she and the rest of the family can sit on a tack if they do not like it. Pretty clear that the husband does not have his family's best interests in mind at that point.

To be clear, I have never traveled out of state, or further than a couple hours to hunt turkeys...  But, I am planning on traveling at some point for turkey hunting (I would especially like to kill some Merriam's in Merriam country)

My thoughts:

*The percentage of people killing those 20 birds is very low, and likely not playing any significant role in the decline of turkeys.
*The people with the time/money to do this are very often shooting private grounds with sustainable turkey populations
*The people with the time/money to do this are very often putting the most money back into conservation, and likely have a net benefit (i.e.putting more in than they are taking out).  Maybe not all of them, but it is these avid hunters who are often ponying up the monies for the conservation that is so terribly needed.

And, not knowing anything about the family dynamics of a given situation, I would be extremely hesitant to judge someones personal family ethics based on how much they travel and hunt.  You are making some awfully strong assumptions here, with zero grounds to base them on.  Maybe the person is single, maybe he is retired with the kids moved out...  Maybe he makes his hunting trips into family trips...  Maybe he is a turd that abandons his family for a couple months...  I have no idea, and would not make any judgements on something, simply cause I could not do so.

[Gooserbat]

Ever how many an individual hunter has the time, money, family support and the law will allow.  If that's two, then two, if that's 20 or more, so be it.

Perfect answer.

[Old Gobbler]

It's a non migratory species and is not subject to federal oversight ...if we were to invite federal oversight..I'm sure the end result would be similar to whatever the "midas touch " the federal government is so proficient at performing..you could expect them to screw that up like they have done with the education system, higher education the list goes on and trust me there is more I would like to say in it , but I'm sure the rest of you read the news too


Florida is in serious trouble , I've been warning the "sky is falling " due to more so habitat loss than anything, yes we have out of staters but I'll be a hypocrite if I took a anti out of stater position , because yes like the rest of you ..I hunt out of state on a regular basis

The average Oldgobbler forum member doest exactly represent the "average" everyday turkey hunter

I would say our membership is  representative of the extremely serious, that's a much smaller percentile of the average guy that hunts a weekend or two , hunts local low hanging fruit locations, doesn't travel out of state ..doesn't spend top dollar on equipment leases , and so on 

If we start a anti out or stater movement, it will have very little effect on the big picture, but I guarantee the antis/PETA will eat it up because any way to limit hunting is a win for them

[Kygobblergetter]

I haven't read through all of these posts but I don't see any issue at all, or any harm to any population if a guy wants to travel to all 49 states and shoot one turkey in each of those states every single spring. I believe it's much harder on turkey populations if people stay in one spot and keep shooting as many birds as they can


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[Marc]

It's a non migratory species and is not subject to federal oversight ...if we were to invite federal oversight..I'm sure the end result would be similar to whatever the "midas touch " the federal government is so proficient at performing..you could expect them to screw that up like they have done with the education system, higher education the list goes on and trust me there is more I would like to say in it , but I'm sure the rest of you read the news too


Florida is in serious trouble , I've been warning the "sky is falling " due to more so habitat loss than anything, yes we have out of staters but I'll be a hypocrite if I took a anti out of stater position , because yes like the rest of you ..I hunt out of state on a regular basis

The average Oldgobbler forum member doest exactly represent the "average" everyday turkey hunter

I would say our membership is  representative of the extremely serious, that's a much smaller percentile of the average guy that hunts a weekend or two , hunts local low hanging fruit locations, doesn't travel out of state ..doesn't spend top dollar on equipment leases , and so on 

If we start a anti out or stater movement, it will have very little effect on the big picture, but I guarantee the antis/PETA will eat it up because any way to limit hunting is a win for them

So those weren't turkeys migrating over my house the other night?

Well said though.  I absolutely agree!

I haven't read through all of these posts but I don't see any issue at all, or any harm to any population if a guy wants to travel to all 49 states and shoot one turkey in each of those states every single spring.

And more power to him if he can kill one in that 50th state.

[guesswho]

And more power to him if he can kill one in that 50th state.

Funny you mention that.  And if he could kill one in that 50th state he would rank #2 in the state on the all time records list.   Someone has a four bearded bird registered for that state already.