Ted- Since Matt is gone I'll attempt to answer your question as best I can.

And we have never said that we wanted the lmit reduced. Nor did we say that we would support it. Remember, folks have gotten way ahead of themselves here...

As stated I am not on the turkey committee but get to hear a lot of the discussions in my position. I used the proverbial "we" above and shouldn't have.

My understanding of the limit reduction and season shift is...

Reducing from 5 to 3 would save 28% of the gobblers in AL. Matt figured out he misquoted earlier today. Now this doesn't make one hill of beans where there are plenty of turkeys but where the population is limited this could result in hens either breeding late or not at all. Late breeders, if you go by some research aren't as successful.

These population differences are why we look at things in an area specific way.

Another important factor is that most supporting documentation shows a large % of the gobblers harvested are taken in the first few days of the season and then there are peaks and valleys in the harvest rates. This first spike should be when nest initiation is taking place. Most research I've seen lately shows that the earliest nest intiators are usually the most successful. Now, reducing the limit might not reduce the numbers killed early during next initiation but shifting the season would. Supporting documentation also shows that most incidental take of multiple birds and hens occur during the early part of the season as well.

I just don't really want to dive into the model. I can't do it justice by trying to type out what it does.

And I dang sure ain't digging up the literature. I read it, put it in memory, save it if I think I'll need it and move on. I know Brett Collier did one the stats. papers.

Now, that is the just I know other than the modem and I ain't going there. Hope this helps in some way. I'm out.