I'll start off by saying there are some areas that turkey numbers are doing well or at least holding their own. However, many places especially in the SE are struggling. What are some of the reasons?
1. Baiting Program - Ever since the legalization of bait for deer, many hunters continue to keep the feeders full during the spring. (Corn, Scratch, Milo, Wheat, Crickets?) People who do not turkey hunt but a couple of times per season routinely kill one over a bait pile on Opening Day. Notice the same people busting one and displaying it all over Facebook on every opening weekend. After shooting into a flock over bait, those same hunters scratch the rest of the season because the odds go back into the turkey's favor.
2. I find it hard to believe a wild turkey can withstand the hunting pressure that Covid has produced. Not to mention, YouTube, Hunting Industry (They have tried to make it like deer hunting - it's not and never will be) Outdoor television Programs, etc.
3. Habitat Loss in my area due to tornado damage and timber harvests.
4. Wild Hogs/ Predators
5. Bad Hatches

What other issues are we dealing with?

Wouldnt it be safe to say that 95% of turkeys die from some type of predation?

Just saw a video if a bald eagle swooping in to try to get a lay down decoy. Gobbler came in to protect hen/decoy 😀

Cool video

this is admittedly 100% anecdotal, but I feel like I see noticeably more "turkey hunters" than just 6-8 years ago

I think cell cameras have a lot to do with it. Back when I started turkey hunting you had to be in the woods to know if you had turkeys. If you had turkeys then you had to be in the woods if you wanted to figure out what they were doing. Now folks can sit in the comforts of a couch and do all that with a little milo and a bunch of cell cameras. Can even tell you when a gobbler is showing up in a certain spot everyday. I think Ray Charles could kill a limit with the info cell cameras give hunters today.

Predators, poachers, nest predators, loss of habitat.

Turkey numbers are higher than ever in many places. "Decline of the Wild Turkey?"

Trap and burn, you will have turkeys.

100% in agreement with this...

I always felt like using a cell camera was cheating. It's kind of like kissing a first cousin at a family reunion. It's a nice gesture, but really should you be getting much satisfaction from that?

I agree with y’all. Get rid of decoys and cameras

I don’t think the population is declining though. Killed just as many around here as we always do and left plenty for seed

Shouldn’t be able to shoot jakes imo

I think the state should do a study where they send the biology students out into our hay fields before we start cutting hay to mark nests. I think that would save a good bit

I've seen and heard more turkeys this year than I have in a long time. All the places that used to have turkeys that I have been around still have em.

When I was kid first starting out you had to order calls from a mail order catalog and you never saw any other turkey hunters. I saw one coming out of the woods one time in Montgomery Co and was shocked. Now you stop at a gas station in March or April before dawn and there 12 guys in there decked out in camo.

Look in the lands and leases section or on the many Facebook pages for hunting club memberships. "No Turkey Rights" is the #1 tag line. People have now figured out they can find a piece of land and gather up a half dozen suckers to hunt pine goats and pay for them a piece of turkey hunting property.

Just leaving Mo. last week and we saw 2 eggs busted in a thick field, looked like crows had done it. Hunting back here in Ms.yesterday and had a huge coyote come running to my caller, he got a face full of Apex.

If hunters are shooting gobblers only, within the framework of a “normal spring season” - then more hunting pressure sucks for us hunters that have been hunting forever - but they aren’t affecting a hen’s ability to do what she does, and raise poults.

There’s something else - so figure out that something else.

I'll never understand why hunters don't seem to get this.

Agreed. Pressure really sucks from an “enjoyment” standpoint. And maybe even from a standpoint of how many birds are alive to hear gobbling. But it has no affect on the future population.

I really think it’s a few things:
1. Crappy habitat
2. Normal population swings after restocking.
3. Weather trends related to nest/poult success
4. An abundance of nest predators
5. Possibly some disease, maybe related to feeding, herbicides, or natural causes.

Saw a guy yesterday, was talking talking about his turkey season so far and how it was tough and been so manny times ands seen a few birds. Didn’t buy it by his story. Looked in his truck bed walking to mine and there were decoys and two bags corn chops. That told me all I needs to know. Damn gives the honest folks a bad reputation

Was there a dead hen in the back of his truck? Had he been scavenging nests and eating the eggs? Is he planning on walking around and jump shooting poults like quail?

This kind of information is what's concerning.

Nobody coon hunts anymore, I say predators of all kinds. Trapping predators imo will help more than anything.

"By 2014, the country had lost approximately one million wild turkeys or 15% of the population. By 2019, the number had dropped another 3%. "

I wish they could cite a source for this info. Ive never seen it. Who census birds?

studies have shown that 93% of statistics are made up on the spot...

We’ve seen more turkeys in the last 4 seasons than we’ve seen in the past 8 yrs on our property. 80% pine with hardwoods along our creek bottoms.Haven’t seen a coon or coyote sign in 2 yrs.That’s a fact.

For me this year was one of those throwbacks to pre-2020 hunting. Back when you could go to pretty much any random spot that looked good and at least hear a turkey. Last few years have been awful quiet.

Heard more this year than I have in quite some time and didn't even hunt half the days I did last year. The last few times I went I was hearing multiple birds, too. I'm hopeful that means the population is on the upswing in my area. Not saying it's that way everywhere as at this point it's clear to me that turkey populations can be a boom or bust thing depending on many factors. A good hatch changes things quick. Just my .02

I heard more birds this year than I have the past 4 I've been hunting. This year is the only year I've not had one gobble back to my calls though. Maybe I just suck at calling lol.

If your hens are nesting in hay fields the root of the problem is not being addressed... habitat.

Not sure why anyone would think it is ok for the State to spend my tax dollars clearing a field of turkey nests so a farmer could mow it anywayl

So all the south eastern states are colluding to limit turkey hunter rights?

My guess would be they’re concerned with decking populations effecting future license sales

No one has or will address why Colbert, Lauderdale and other seasons were closed for some time. Lauderdale was closed for 25 years and Colbert was closed for 10 is what I’ve been told. I can’t find any docs saying what the times frames were but I was there when Lauderdale opened back up for 5 days. They slowly opened back up for several years and advanced the area countywide. Those were some stupid birds for a few years.

This was Waterloo 2nd day of opening mid 90s. First day was a wash out
Funny story my friend killed his first one and I as pumped. Spent $800 that afternoon at Russell’s Sporting Goods. That’d be like several thousand now. He has a great piece of pretty loaded with turkeys. His population has barely fluctuated yet where I hunted as crashed. 🤷‍♂️

My guess.........

Back in the BC era…..before coyote……Turkey population growth rates were most likely higher across the board…..Your good land was likely spilling out a lot more turkeys onto the landscape without coyote's impact…..This kind of growth would have folks seeing turkeys who might not have the same habitat as the good land but were benefiting from their exponential growth……

Now add coyotes into the mix and the PC era….post coyote…..isnt producing that same growth rates……So the areas that used to benefit from the overspill of the good land don’t have it any more and more pressure is being applied to their lesser habitat.

Unless you were around in the 70s and 80s you really don't know what large turkey numbers are. What was happening back then? Trapping for money and alot of coon hunting. Oh and turkeys nested in hayfields back then also. Oh and thousands of less turkey hunters also.

So when did coyotes get here? Kind of thought they were already here with the T-Rex and Bham Fred.

I was in school when I remember some showing up around here. I was trapping hard back then caught one when something was eating my uncles watermelons. First one I had seen .

I think the 80’s and 90’s was the main expansion period where they filled in the landscape…..Might have run into the early 2000’s.......Something like that.....They may have even grown some since then as they've gotten better at utilizing the landscape and resources

Early 80's is what I remember. We had several fox pens in this area that had some and that's what it got blamed on.

Interesting how we had different experiences. The 80s were our worst decade by far. It was 20 years after restocking and a whole lot of timber was clearcut and our turkey population went way down. It came back starting in the early 90s.

The first coyote I saw was either 1979 or 80. I caught it in a fox set and had never seen such a critter before. It was the 90s before we started seeing them regularly.

way it was where i hunted in tallapoosa , clear cutting hurt them , was great for deer though .

I think that's one reason we have so many problems. Surveys being done in one part of the state and applying what's found to the whole state

I've still got the first gobbler I killed beard in a frame. 1977. Has somehow stayed together all these yrs.

Alabama DCNR loves bats turtles snakes frogs eagles and weird crap way more than a wild turkey. I personally think that is a huge problem. Prove me wrong.

Studies? Why keep doing them. It's predators, case closed.

Until we hunters have a agency that cares and spends our money on what we originally pay for then I see a dim future for turkeys in general.

Amen!

I see similarities in the situation now with African elephants. Some of the African countries outlawed hunting them years ago. With no funds from hunters to manage and protect them, poachers soon wiped them out. There was nobody to stop them.

But elephants actually increased in the countries that allowed hunting. That is now coming to an end as the geniuses who run the US FWS have decreed that we can't bring any elephant parts back to the US, and so have many European nations. The president of Botswana threatened to send Germany 20,000 elephants to roam freely over their country to see what it's like to live with them. That was a funny response, but it doesn't change the fact that African elephants are doomed to extinction, and it's not due to anything except essentially ending legal hunting of them.

It will likely be a long time before turkeys go extinct in AL, but I believe their numbers will decline in direct proportion to hunting restrictions. Our land will produce a few without effort from anyone, but the numbers we all want to see come from management. Eliminate hunting and the management goes with it. The poachers will be very hard on the few that remain.

DCNR in this state has priority issues. It's not hard to do the right thing and I promise you they are far from that.

^preacher^ the place I hunt them had turkeys in the beginning and it will in the end. I do see a decline in some parts and the suggestions I have given the DCNR get shot down. It's always " lack of funds".

If it's tracking a eagle or a bear they suddenly have wheel of fortune money though?