I went on a hunt in MO back around 2008 or so, and I've never heard as many Easterns gobble in one place as I did on that hunt. I hunted 3 different tracts, scattered over about 30 miles, and they were all loaded with turkeys. I killed my 2 easily, but I hated the state regs and also all the restrictions the outfitter placed on me, so I didn't go back for several years.

I think it was about 6 years later that I went back, and I never heard a turkey gobble on his land. I heard one gobble twice far away one morning, heard absolutely nothing the next day. All of those draconian regulations didn't make a bit of difference in the world. They won't help AL either. What they will do is discourage folks from managing their land for turkeys, and the inevitable result will be a lot fewer turkeys.

Government regulations do not produce turkeys. Private landowners produce turkeys. If you want more turkeys, do everything you can to encourage the landowners. Long ago, our dcnr understood this, and in fact, that's where I learned it. Most of the opinions I hold about wildlife management is what our dcnr was telling folks back in the 60s and 70s. They were extremely successful in getting that message out, and the result was that AL had good populations of deer and turkey long before our neighboring states.

But now we just wanna embrace the failed policies of the other states. I guess everyone reacts to peer pressure.