Low Turkey Numbers

BritChaser

BritChaser

Well-known member
Been out three times in two different locations and have seen a total of 17 birds. In one location there used to be 130+ in the flock; now about 10.

Years ago a Hill City old-timer with probably 40 seasons under his boots said that when pheasant numbers are down the birds are more skittish and spook easily. My experience confirms. Anyone else seeing far flushers on opening day?

Apparently this applies to turkey. One hunter told us that turkeys are shying away from decoys and calls. It happened to us yesterday. We got close to a lone tom, the ideal turkey target, and he turned around and went the other way when we called. Yet another lone tom failed to even more than glance at our decoys and ignore our calls as it went past. A lone jake was the exception.
 
BritChaser said:
One hunter told us that turkeys are shying away from decoys and calls. It happened to us yesterday. We got close to a lone tom, the ideal turkey target, and he turned around and went the other way when we called. Yet another lone tom failed to even more than glance at our decoys and ignore our calls as it went past.
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Turkeys being call or decoy shy isn't anything new. I've experienced this for over 15 years hunting them. I pretty much stop calling now because of it, and most of the time I don't even use a decoy anymore. I just set up my blind near the roost and wait for one to walk by within range. Its more like "deer hunting for turkeys" now. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.

If I were you I'd ditch the calls and decoys given they are negatively responding to it.
 
Always had excellent responses to my calls and decoys until this season.
 
Turkey numbers have been trending down for a number of years now. A number of states are reducing available tags and season days. There is a lot of research currently being conducted, to help determine root causes. Egg & poult predation, along with suitable nesting and brood rearing habitat, seem to be the focus. Dr. Mike Chamberlain is an expert in this area, and I believe he has a weekly podcast on Tuesdays. Turkeys for Tomorrow is a fledgling organization, dedicated to both research and appropriate actions to reverse turkey population declines. One example is providing traps at cost to reduce the number of egg predators. One area I hunt seems to be rebounding in population, which is encouraging.
Call/decoy shy - Most of the land I hunt is hunted by others. Even if it isn't, the adjoining land is. Like you, I'll start with a decoy or two. I tend to call very infrequently, as they can become decoy and call shy in a hurry. If they seem to shy away from the decoys, I pull them. I've also had them ignore my decoys one day and come right to them the next. Once the same birds have ignored my decoys twice, then I definitely pull them. By then, I've patterned them, and set up along their daily route, still calling infrequently. Good Luck!! Persistence wins the day.
 
Is there any chance that avian influenza is causing some mortality here? The current strain is far more deadly to wild birds than previous strains. Not only can they carry it, but it quite often can kill them too whereas previous strains usually didn't kill them.
 
gimruis said:
Is there any chance that avian influenza is causing some mortality here? The current strain is far more deadly to wild birds than previous strains. Not only can they carry it, but it quite often can kill them too whereas previous strains usually didn't kill them.
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I'm sure it's a big factor
 
I did some research on the subject of turkey populations declining in the south, as compared to increasing or remaining steady in the north. This is what I found. There is no evidence that avian influenza is playing a major role. Rather, it is a combination of over-hunting/harvesting, poor poult production, increased predation, and loss of habitat. If this has been going on for more than a few years now, why are some of these states still allowing the harvest of multiple turkeys each spring? Seems like they need to cut way back on bag limits. Here in Minnesota, we've only ever been able to fill one tag, and then the season is over.

www.duluthnewstribune.com

Minnesota, Wisconsin so far avoid mysterious southern states' turkey decline

Despite snow on the ground, spring turkey seasons start next week.
www.duluthnewstribune.com www.duluthnewstribune.com
 
I can tell you in MN the turkey numbers seem to get larger every year. The DNR has kicked around upping the limit because turkeys are becoming nuisance birds in some areas. The turkey spot I've hunted the last two years the birds love to investigate calls and check out decoys. One turkey I messed up two days in a row, actually ran him off getting to my hunting spot one day and missed him the next. He still came into the decoy spread on day three. Hey I'm not complaining, I'll take the dumb ones any day! And this was at least a 3-year old dominant tom.
 

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BritChaser said:
Years ago a Hill City old-timer with probably 40 seasons under his boots said that when pheasant numbers are down the birds are more skittish and spook easily. My experience confirms. Anyone else seeing far flushers on opening day?
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Can't speak to turkeys at all, but I've never noticed this phenomenon with pheasants. It's possible that if numbers are down significantly (like after a terrible nesting/brooding season), there are probably a higher percentage of 2nd year birds, who, on average, will be smarter or more skittish than young of the year birds, making it SEEM like it's directly related to population. I run into wild flushing, opening day birds often enough, but I'm pretty sure the cause is weather (like lack of a good breeze) &/or previous pressure of some sort (like our youth "season"). On a small scale, I'd say pheasants usually seem MORE skittish if they're among a larger group.
 
I do a lot of scouting, glossing, talking to farmers,other hunters. They can be very skidish and wary. They can see like an eagle.I like to get behind a tree, and call. I call a lot.I don't always use my decoy, but I have it with me. Get in the woods at 0dark30, and be quiet. Don't move out in the open,unless you absolutely have to.
 
Bob Peters said:
I can tell you in MN the turkey numbers seem to get larger every year. The DNR has kicked around upping the limit because turkeys are becoming nuisance birds in some areas. The turkey spot I've hunted the last two years the birds love to investigate calls and check out decoys. One turkey I messed up two days in a row, actually ran him off getting to my hunting spot one day and missed him the next. He still came into the decoy spread on day three. Hey I'm not complaining, I'll take the dumb ones any day! And this was at least a 3-year old dominant tom.
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Nice eastern
 
Bob Peters said:
I can tell you in MN the turkey numbers seem to get larger every year. The DNR has kicked around upping the limit because turkeys are becoming nuisance birds in some areas.
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Personally I'd like to see MN play around with the season length first before upping the bag limit. It's one of the big reasons I started bow hunting turkeys. You can hunt all season instead of just 7 days. I typically like the B season but the weather doesn't always cooperate. I'd like a few seasons of 1 bird per tag, but you can hunt all season or maybe 2 weeks on 1 license and see how that plays out.
 
At least now that MN got rid of the lottery and everything is over the counter, and zones are essentially eliminated except for reporting purposes, that has really added flexibility to MN turkey hunting. And if you don't shoot a bird in your first season, you have about two weeks to hunt at the end of May to bag your bird, season E I believe. I do agree that they could almost get rid of the different seasons, allow everyone to hunt anytime the season is open, but still keep a yearly turkey limit.
 
Munster927 said:
Personally I'd like to see MN play around with the season length first before upping the bag limit. It's one of the big reasons I started bow hunting turkeys. You can hunt all season instead of just 7 days. I typically like the B season but the weather doesn't always cooperate.
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I usually hunt season B too. This year I chose C instead because of the immense snowpack on the ground when I started planning and bought my license in March. Even if you don't fill a tag with an early season they give you a chance during the very last season to try again without having to buy another license.

I see that Bob already responded to this now and indicated that already.

I really have no reason to shoot a second bird, even if it was permitted. Its hard enough to fill my tag once and I don't care for eating them.
 
I can't say this is sure-fire, but my life-time experience is:
If you want to get a turkey, go squirrel hunting; if you want to get a deer, go turkey or rabbit hunting; if you want to SEE a black bear, bring a .22/20ga Model 24; and finally ( and this is almost a guarantee), if you really are looking for that big buck, wait until you absolutely have to use the toilet paper you brought, walk away from your stand, and begin your business--and the King of the Forest will wander on by.

Trust me.
;)
 
I haven't noticed any declines in the farm field birds. Buy definitely a decline in the big wood's birds. It went from hearing 8 or 10 birds a day to I hope I hear a bird today. I should explain that I live in an area that's farm ground dotted with small to medium sized woods. 1 hour east is mostly woods, because it's to hilly and rocky to farm. I'll know more in a few days!!
 
gimruis said:
I usually hunt season B too. This year I chose C instead because of the immense snowpack on the ground when I started planning and bought my license in March. Even if you don't fill a tag with an early season they give you a chance during the very last season to try again without having to buy another license.

I see that Bob already responded to this now and indicated that already.

I really have no reason to shoot a second bird, even if it was permitted. Its hard enough to fill my tag once and I don't care for eating them.
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The only time I like the option of a second bird is when I take out of state trips to Nebraska, Kansas, etc. There's been times I've made the trip there, got lucky my first day, and can keep hunting. It would kind of suck if I drove 9 hours, hunted one morning and then I was done. The times I've tagged early in MN when I take a week off, I'll spend the rest of the week trout fishing.
 
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