Them boys got a death wish. I quit watching when the one was videoing and walking around with slugs flying every which way. They promote everything that goes wrong with public hunting.

I'm not sure public lands should be used for profit neither. We have a guide on the local lake who does trips for rockfish. Its a put and take fishery. His business is therefore unwillingly subsidized.

Get a real job.

I was at the old store around 4:30am on the phone in Hollytree 2 weeks ago. A guy pulled up ask if I was ?? He had a guide trip on skyline and was meeting there. I don’t remember who he was asking for. I wish I had better memory at times. Yep skyline is covered up with everybody.

And from the Aldeer pulpit, truth has been spoken.

Wherever they are I hope they gotta spare...

Dont get on youtube r want to know how - never done the book of faces and glad i aint

WMA been some of the bettr land i hav hunted - consistently worked birds there. Many like to tell there story when they kill and the right turkeys can make u feel like u are a bettr hunter than u really are - any of us can get our butt kicked on the right ones 😀

I sure lov fooling w them - glad i been able to sit down to some this year

I thought they always hunted Chocclocco.

I remember listening to an episode of the Meateater Podcast a while back....one of Rinella's brothers was on there. He lives in Alaska and I think they were sheep hunting. Anyway, I remember they were discussing how one of his biggest disagreements with Steven is on the need for "Hunter Recruitment". He admitted that it was a catch-22 because more people hunting means more protection for hunting rights, conservation, etc, but that he selfishly wanted LESS people hunting because more hunters = more competition, pressure, etc...and this from folks that almost exclusively hunt out west were there is a LOT more public land.

I'm in my 10th turkey season. Early on I loved Pinhoti, in particular. There's no denying Dave Owens knows what he's doing. I also watched a lot of the THP and Catman stuff. But as someone who almost exclusively does my turkey hunting on public land, it's obvious that it's had a major impact (largely negative) on public land hunting and now I just about can't stand to watch any of it.

Turkey hunting has become "cool" and "fashionable", much like what happened to duck hunting during the heyday of Duck Commander/Duck Dynasty. I'm not sure if that has calmed down or not recently but I definitely don't notice nearly as much stuff on social media about duck hunting as I did 8-10 yrs ago. Hopefully this turkey hunting "fad" will fall out popularity soon.

Someone needs to make it their mission to make hog hunting and predator hunting/trapping the next "cool thing"

I'll say this. I totally agree that filming for profit on public lands needs a stiff permit. What they are doing is using publicly funded land to name a for profit show, and it's not right.

I don't think THP and pinhoti caused the widespread turkey decline we are experiencing. We can argue all day on what has, but it wasn't them. I also don't think they shut down the country for a month and told people, "don't work!" a week before turkey season opened in the SE. Population at my local WMA has not recovered from the huntfest that was spring of 2020 where every day was the weekend.

Turkey hunting is not easy and you won't dumbass your way into a bird like you can a good deer by sitting in a box. I think they definitely created a wave of dumbass people hitting the woods in pursuit of a turkey, but it doesn't take long for people to get frustrated. You can see that at the end of the season on public, basically nobody is hunting anymore.

I think turkey hunting in Alabama sucks more than it used to because of the turkey decline and because of the covid year that compounded the decline moreso than the influence of a couple of YouTubers.

First part was on lauderdale, the other was freedom hills I believe.

Want to say it's Missouri that already has a ban on profiting from videos filmed on their "conservation areas". So there is a precedent.

I’ve never seen as many out of state hunters on Skyline as this year. That being said they aren’t killing anything. There was a group from Texas that spent first week camped out near one area I hunt and ran into them walking in and out. They hadn’t taken a bird between 4 of them in 8 days. I think it was shock the way those turkeys acted compared to Texas.

You believe them? I automatically assume everything anyone I don't know really well tells me regarding turkeys is a blatant lie...

If a law was passed that you can’t profit off public property what would fishing guides and commercial fishermen do? It’s the same concept.

I’m trying to understand why people are so mad at these folks. Is it because there’s more hunters in the woods now or is it because they’re doing something illegal? I honestly don’t know so I’m asking out of ignorance of the situation.

I would say that it seems people always want more hunters in the woods until it’s the woods they hunt. Then folks don’t seem as interested in getting others out there. That’s unfortunate I believe because if there’s not a large enough interest in hunting and fishing we will eventually lose those rights. Maybe not in any of our lifetimes but it will happen.

I can believe it. The only place I have seen crazier turkeys than Skyline is one particular tract of public land in Tennessee. Rios (from our experience in Texas last week) ain't in the same class of wary and crazy as Jackson County birds.

Make an exception for fishing guides and commercial fisherman ... heck, let's subsidize them if it will get more folks on the water and out of the woods during turkey season.

I just don't think there is any shortage of turkey hunters and turkeys seemed to be getting along just fine before the popularity of the 'let me post everything on YouTube/Instagram/Facebook/Ticktok so folks can see what a great hunter I am even if it draws unnecessary attention to public land that was already getting plenty of pressure from local hunters but now is getting hammered by folks from all over the country' trend started. But that is just my take as someone that has turkey hunted for over 40 years and seen lots of changes and not all (or even most) for the betterment of the turkeys.

For me, personally, it's a mix of

1. Jealousy (yeah, I'll admit it) that they get to hunt as much as they do and have the amount of success they do, when I've managed to kill a total of 3 birds in 10 years of hunting
2. Annoyance at how turkey hunting has become the latest trendy thing, much like I mentioned happening to duck hunting several years ago, which leads to...
2b. Noticeably more traffic/pressure on the public lands I typically hunt

Appreciate it wmd and Gomer. I’ve only dabbled with turkey hunting so I don’t know the history of all this. I do know 10 years ago hardly anyone turkey hunted and it was really easy to get permission. Now it does seem that it’s trendy.

Public in Alabama is like Missouri,Kansas,Kentucky,Iowa,Arkansas. Deer and duck hunters. More out of state tags than resident tags. Were just feeling it. Parts of Ohio was on spring break last week. Yep talked to a guy down here chasing birds on public. Knocking on doors seeing what he could find.

Primos, HS Strut, Realtree, all those guys have been putting out turkeys hunting videos for over 20 years. Maybe it’s the ease of the internet to post hunts that has more people watching vs having to buy a DVD. THP and the like aren’t helping, but the commercialization of turkey hunting is not a new thing.

That said, I wish everyone would quit and take up golf or go fishing.

There are extra fees for commercial fishing and in many instances guides, too. You have to buy a permit to forage mushrooms and plants on federal lands anywhere I know of. Firewood, yep. Christmas trees even. If public hunt filmers don't back up, they'll be targeted for increased taxes as well.


Aggressive tactics can be more effective at killing turkeys. Turkeys can be easy to kill if you don't care how you do it. You just have to travel around to find fresh birds and not care about getting shot or ruining hunts for others; or having any class, really.