Originally Posted by CNC
Do they kill less on these other lands?? Likely yes........Does either or any area leave a bunch of excess gobblers running around at the end of the season??....No, likely not.......


If they harvest gobblers at a lower rate, yes, they leave a LOT of excess gobblers running around at the end of the season.

Originally Posted by CNC
The density map is likely showing you a pretty good overall output of gobblers for each county with some variation to consider. Those variations dont account for the entire southwest corner of the state though.


Yea, NOT a density map - its a drawing you made up with squiggly lines and made up numbers - totally useless

Originally Posted by CNC

Gobbler named off 130,000 acres worth just at a bare minimum across a few counties where we’re at….…I’m sure you could add a bunch more to that and its just a drop in the bucket for what gets burned in southwest AL. I mentioned this before but the reason I believe these burn acres can have an impact even though they are only a certain % of the total land mass is because these burn acres basically represent your nesting grounds in these areas. The burn tracts on the landscape create the perfect cover to draw in the birds for nesting. In other words, the use of fire is likely concentrating them to those tracts during nesting……and then when weather delays burning season…..the late fire being ran through these stands could easily cause enough disturbance to see decreases in “egg” production....birds are finicky to disruption. I believe the reason we are seeing it being more of a factor in recent years is due to the warming trend causing turkey to likely breed earlier as well as the change to the Feb 10 end date of deer season which pushed the start of burn season back as well.


Turkey home ranges are around 2-3,000 acres. Some of these places are 15,000 acres. Using the term "nesting grounds" and "draw in the birds for nesting". If you don't know that it doesn't work like that, you don't know turkeys (except for barnyard turkeys of which you seem to be an expert). Turkeys have a home range and they stay in it mostly. If you want to manage for turkeys you have to have all the habitat types within that area managed correctly. They don't move miles to go to "the nesting grounds" like a friggin crane.
That being said, even on the most intensley burned wildife property in this area,, AT MOST, 40% of the ground is burned in any given year leaving 60% unburned, Plenty of "nesting ground".
Again, these places are carrying some of the highest turkey densities in the State. More than most other private land and certainly more than the National Forest, Management areas and timber company lands. You should be commending these places for managing well and acting as a place for turkeys to flourish and spread to other local properties instead of whining about their burning practices. Do you ever carry a driptorch?


Last edited by gobbler; 03/11/22 10:11 PM.
I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine