This is from the 2015 Alabama wild turkey report put out by the DCNR. I'm looking for some insight into Coosa counties turkey population, specifically bordering lake Mitchell. Is there really that big of a difference in population on the chilton side of the river versus the Coosa side.

At least they admitted that the map isn't scientific, but the way that county lines are often used as the line between colors tells you in some cases there wasn't a whole lot of thought put into it. I guess the quality of the estimate depended on how seriously the biologist for each area took the job. In some places it looks like someone carefully studied the area and did a good job on it. In other areas, it looks like the guy took 5 minutes.

I suspect the difference in the 2 counties in question is mainly due to 2 different guys drawing the line. But I could be wrong and someone just decided to use the river as a dividing line.

For several decades I hunted the Coosa side of the river, both on the WMA and off of it. It was some of the finest turkey hunting I've ever experienced. The great thing about those turkeys was that they would gobble, and gobble some more. Even on days of bad weather you could usually find a good gobbling bird. They were tough to kill because it was public land you usually had to deal with other hunters, but they could certainly be killed if you were patient.

If you are considering joining one of the hunting clubs on the Coosa side of the river, I say forget that map and go for it. Good luck!

There's plenty of birds on the Coosa county side, like PCP said ,but they are mean ones

I can tell you that the east side of Houston county along the river / hwy 95 should have some yellow and red!

Map isn't accurate. Most of western Barbour, western Russell, bullock and Macon should be red. Most of chilton, coosa, tallapoosa, talladega should be either red or yellow. East of Gadsden should be yellow.

Looks like the biologists in regions with a lot of turkeys threw a dart at it, and the regions with very few turkeys, they did a good job, but overestimated the few good areas.

4 gobblers per 640 acres is not all that high to start with. Pretty much any decent to good turkey habitat will hold that many in the majority of the state.

I can paint 315 red in east Montgomery county

they need a few blue dots an a couple yellow dots in marshall county an paint the rest of that sucker green or whatever color they got for "they aint no datgum turkeys", cause they aint turkeys in but about 5 places county wide. I agree some of those south Alabama places should have more yellow an red.

I like your optimism - and everyone here that follows the turkey forum knows I'm in favor of the 5 bird limit, but I tend to disagree with this statement.

Having 4 mature gobblers on every 640 acres would be considered much, much higher than average quality turkey hunting ground in the south.

Take an average 1500 acre club scattered across the state. Very, very, very, very few of them will kill - or have the opportunity to kill 9-10 gobblers each year. Ground that can support that would be good hunting. They exist, but their definition isn't decent. It's better than decent.

they got where i hunt in elmore county wrong . should be higher !!!!

last sunday i counted 22 hens and five gobblers .

I'm assuming you know this, but using a Fall/Winter flock observation doesn't work.

I got a pic of 18 longbeards together one winter - but that didn't mean the turkey population was 18 gobblers/acre.

There's a big difference in killing and having.... There is also a big difference in hearing a bird gobble, and having them....

It's guessing on either of our ends, but keep in mind that most of the time only a select few birds gobble on a given morning.

Birds are splitting up here, sounds like his are as well.

It's cool to see a state map regarding turkey density. Thanks for posting it! That said, i think it is probably regionally accurate but not very accurate if you are looking at it to see where your place falls. I turkey hunt a couple places in Central and east Alabama that are yellow on that map and definitely should be red.

we talking square mile not a acre . i realize a sq mile is not that big but they have my numbers lowwwwwww . but ,,,, hunting aint near as good as it used to be . that's a fact !!!!!

i used to could limit out on old tom's and still have a bunch left over . that was hunting off a 100ac.

That's why I threw in "opportunity to kill". I'm just saying there's plenty of average clubs that would love to have 10-15 birds available to hunt at any given time.

Yeah, I get it - I was using per acre for a reason. Actually all those gobblers were standing on about 1/10 acre at one given time. So the population was 180 mature gobblers/acre - or about 115,200 per square mile.

Of course that's outrageous, but that's not too far from how some hunters think. The same ones that believe "that longbeard" lives behind that food plot over there, every second of every day, all year. You've met those guys.

I feel like I'm debating the wrong side of how I feel about the population. I'll say again - I'm in favor of our 5 bird limit, without regard to the colors on that map and whether it's accurate or not.

hell just the weather can put them in different spots day to day .

You need to charge your phone