That's what I was trying to figure out. In 2017 it breaks down like this:
3184 total birds were killed by hunters who reported killing just 1 bird
2196 total birds were killed by hunters who reported killing 2 birds (2x1098 hunters)
1365 ----------------------------------------------------------------------3 birds (3x455 hunters)
888------------------------------------------------------------------------4 birds (4x222 hunters)
615------------------------------------------------------------------------5 birds (5x123 hunters)
8248 total birds reported in 2017

They say 8266 total harvest without IRV (whatever that is) so I'm not sure why the numbers don't add up. So does this mean that if the limit had been 3 birds in 2017, would there have been 1503 (888+615) extra gobblers in 2018?

Dr. B

Really birds 1-3 are irrelevant to the discussion though. We are talking about a limit reduction from 5 to 4 or 3.

Sure. So If you drop the limit to 4, you save 123 birds if those hunters who killed 5 do not guide anyone else. If you drop it to 3 you save 468 if those hunters don’t guide anyone else

So. Birds 4 and 5 made up 5.6% of the 8266 harvest total.

Jesus, y'all are making my head hurt

I always knew that Preacher and the rest of y’all killers on here were 1%ers!

If you would go kill a turkey it would make it feel better

Wish I had the property that had those kind of numbers.

Those guys have the whole world to hunt. Piddling is their livelihood!

Oh I know. Just wish I had property that had those kind of numbers.

And neglect their jobs and family for 60 days to do it.

I think basing anything on game check numbers is totally useless. They probably get more reliable info using a monkey and a dart board. Until they can get very high compliance, which is never, they're hoping and passing into the wind. Trying to manage a bunch of Alabama rednecks is like herding cats

You dang right!

I wish they would shut deer and Turkey season down for about 2 years and only allow predator hunting. I know it would not stop all the deer and turkeys from dying but I bet you would see a noticable difference in the following decade in deer and Turkey populations.

Thanks, 468 is the number I have wanted to know.

What is the % we are assuming are not reporting to game check, you have to add that as well even if we assume they will not follow game laws as they dont report anyway.

I’m making the assumption that the ratio of 4th/5th birds to total harvest will remain similar to the 5.6% in game check. If chucks 35% participation is correct, that would mean less than 1500 birds saved statewide by dropping the limit to 3.

1500 is a bunch of Turkey gobblers. Wonder how many of those would die of natural causes that year they were not killed? Over a 4 or 5 year period that's a sure enough bunch of turkey gobblers saved

1338 birds total to be exact. Of course that’s assuming chucks 35% participation is correct. To break it down further, that would add about 20 longbeards per county. Let’s be optimistic and say 3/4 of them survive and no hunters take others after limiting out. After 3 years you’ve added 45 longbeards per county. That’s about as many as you will ever add because the older ones will die. With this format, perry county would have an additional longbeard per every 16 square miles. My guesstimating may be way off, but even if it improved the gobbler numbers twice what I’m thinking, it won’t make a crap worth of difference.

That's 1338 more than will survive this year so that's a good thing! Once population numbers recover they can always increase the limit