State Bag Limits- Too Many Or Too Few?

[Greg Massey]

I would rather have a turkey to hunt and chase, than no turkey left at all... I can remember the early years of just being glad to hear a gobbler or two during the spring season. So it's all part of a cycle and hopefully numbers will increase again. I have seen more turkeys in the last several months than in the previous two years in my area.  Good luck everyone this spring.

[Dtrkyman]

I think it needs to be broken down more specifically, one thing Illinois does well is county by county tags and the smaller state lands are tag specific for that one place.

They also have 5 separated seasons.

I don't like seeing opportunities taken away however the focus should be on population effects, which may be minimal?

I wouldn't mind seeing a premium to get a second tag, and or not allowing a second tag until you fill the first.

I like one bird per day restrictions and even one bird the first week like Missouri.

Keeping non res off federal land is a joke!

Tom's are supposedly expendable after peak breeding but there would be less on the landscape to hear and work from year to year.

Hopefully the Covid effect starts to slow down!


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[Gooserbat]

There's a reason for the one tom limit in some states that may be legitimate, or it could be a knee jerk reaction because as i was told by ODWC "We had to do something."  I could write pages about doing something but I'll just sum it up and say if we all as turkey hunters put just 2-3 hours a week into what ever we feel passionate about (habitat improvements, predator control, controlled burns, ...) then our combined efforts would change a lot of the situation. 

[Hook hanger]

It depends on the states population and  how much pressure is being put on the population. As long as harvest is not more than 30% of the adult gobbler population in the state. You want to have enough in the population to withstand a really bad hatch year. I like to see things managed for quality of hunts more than managed for opportunity to hunt.

[Twowithone]

Pa.2 Gobblers allowed with 2nd Special tag. Pa has it,s ups and downs with its Turkey Population every year. I know we used to trap the turkeys and trade them to either one of the Dakota states the one with a lot of pheasants because we have a horrible pheasant population and they traded birds. On the other hand Pa.GC is always struggling for money and their 2nd tag is a money maker for them. If I remember it,s the most expensive extra tag out of all the extra tags you can purchase.

[bbcoach]

2 is a Gracious plenty for any State IMO.  This is a resource that has more downs than ups and we as Resource Managers should be thinking this way, if we want to be able to hunt these Amazing Animals in the FUTURE!  TOO MANY predators and BAD things can happen when eggs are laid on the ground.  God wasn't kind to Turkey hatchlings so we need to do our part to HELP them any way we can.  My 2 cents.

[kytrkyhntr]

If every state had a stamp, delayed non res, and limit 1 non resident... a lot of problems would go away.

[zelmo1]

I feel a lot of bad feelings for non res hunters, are they really putting that much of a dent in the turkey numbers? I see as many non res vehicles around here as I do resident during turkey season. My state has a 2 bird limit with one bird being taken in specific units. I live in one of the special units so I don't have to travel much. I would rather see a one bird limit with a second permit after you tag the first. The second tag would be contingent on the unit and a $50 fee. But that's just my  . Z

[ScottTaulbee]

I feel a lot of bad feelings for non res hunters, are they really putting that much of a dent in the turkey numbers? I see as many non res vehicles around here as I do resident during turkey season. My state has a 2 bird limit with one bird being taken in specific units. I live in one of the special units so I don't have to travel much. I would rather see a one bird limit with a second permit after you tag the first. The second tag would be contingent on the unit and a $50 fee. But that's just my  . Z

This is 9 in the morning on April 20th last season at a WMA I've hunted since a kid. It has 4 parking areas on this one 4,000 acre tract and this is just one of them. April 20th was the Thursday after opening weekend mind you. 6 days in to the season on a week day. You'll see 10 to 1 non resident plates on any WMA or national forest land that I've been to within 100 miles of my house the years of 21,22,23. And each year it gets worse and worse. It's to the point of either going out of state yourself to get to hunt or just not hunting. That particular WMA from 2009 until 2021 had less than 30 total turkey taken during the spring season on 8,500 acres combined between all tracts, and it was very heavily pressured then. Even the covid year of 2020 there were 28 turkeys taken. 2023 there were 59, 2022 there were 60, 2021 there were 37, 2020 there were 28.   
The only thing that changed was an influx of OOS hunters. How long can this WMA handle this constant increase of harvest and pressure?. This is just one of many in the state that is seeing this trend. I personally feel that our state needs to get on board with the states within a 8 hour drive of us and all open the same day. Drop the limit to 1 turkey and charge a 100$ turkey stamp. I had many conversations with the OOS guys last year and every one of them told me they were "chasing 49" or because "our season doesn't open for 3 weeks and this was the closest place to go to hunt". 6 out of 10 were from Ohio, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania. Very few were from the south of us or out west.

And before this gets misconstrued, I'm all for fairness. I'll gladly pay for a 100$ stamp, a license increase across the board, and kill one less turkey if it means I'll have them to hunt in 20 years and in the mean time can actually hunt the lands around here instead of spending  6 hours, from 3 hours before daylight until I give up, the handful of days I have to hunt driving to every WMA and National Forest land around because they all have a OOS hunter camped at them 2 or 3 deep.

I say all of that but I also want to say, I don't mind, respectful OOS hunters that have common sense and morals. I ran in to a few older gentlemen last year from up north as I was leaving that pulled in behind me and we talked for a half hour and I wished them well. But 90% of these cats are running around, "my turkeys" "gotta fill my tags" rush in on you working birds, rev their trucks behind yours when you beat them to park, honk their horns, etc.


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[Gooserbat]

I feel a lot of bad feelings for non res hunters, are they really putting that much of a dent in the turkey numbers? I see as many non res vehicles around here as I do resident during turkey season. My state has a 2 bird limit with one bird being taken in specific units. I live in one of the special units so I don't have to travel much. I would rather see a one bird limit with a second permit after you tag the first. The second tag would be contingent on the unit and a $50 fee. But that's just my  . Z

Ok I travel and I'm working towards the US Slam.  For the most part I have no issues with taking a single bird in each given state especially on public land.

[quavers59]

Joey46- New Jersey has no set Max Limit on Gobblers Killed. If you know the Lottery Phase- the Over the Counter Phase- have plenty of Time + Money and Extra Quick Typing Fingers- 8- 10+ Turkey Permits are possible.
    I realize a small but growing group takes advantage  of this System Loophole.

[Ihuntoldschool]

I wish we could put a limit on the timber harvest particularly in the Southeast. That's the threat to turkeys and reason for the decline.

[nativeks]

We went from 2 to 1 and it was long overdue. When you have outfitters saying there aren't surplus gobblers anymore you know something is amiss. I haven't bought a turkey tag since 2020. On a calm morning you may not even hear a turkey gobble. Quite the change fron 10 years. Get alot of poachers from Arkansas and points south and east though.

[sasquatch1]

We can start with no jakes unless it's for a youth first. MS been 3 birds forever and I've never had to up my effort to kill my limit, so I don't want to hear how the birds disappeared. Some years are better and some worse. We are talking about a highly fluctuated resource here. They are not deer. It doesn't take but 2 solid years of hatches to make a drastic difference in population.

The only reason most of this even gets brought up now is from a huge increase of social media driven newbies all wanting instant gratification.

These post pop up almost everyday, just 5 years ago they hardly ever showed up.

No jakes and no filming on public lands. Let's just Start there


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[Tom007]

Joey46- New Jersey has no set Max Limit on Gobblers Killed. If you know the Lottery Phase- the Over the Counter Phase- have plenty of Time + Money and Extra Quick Typing Fingers- 8- 10+ Turkey Permits are possible.
    I realize a small but growing group takes advantage  of this System Loophole.

I can tell you first hand that Jersey is seeing the effects of these bag limits. The Northern part of the state has seen a very concerning drop in populations. The last 3 years in a row have shown an average drop of over 20% annual harvest over-all. The Southern part of the state is now getting pounded, it's a matter of time that the entire state will suffer very low bird numbers. It's a shame that they rely heavily on this permit revenue, thus steps to reduce same will lead to budget shortfalls. Time will tell, but I can see this becoming a real problem in the future. On-line checking that was instituted the past few years I believe has impacted this also. They make it too easy for a dishonest hunter to harvest several birds on the same permit. I believe you could add another 10% to the annual harvest numbers due to birds that were not checked in. All this will definitely affect the resource, we can only hope it survives.....