fall turkey

Nobody Hates a Turkey Hunter More Than…

If you asked me this back when I began chasing gobblers three decades ago I might have answered: Anti Hunters, Vegetarians, maybe Bow Hunters during overlapping weeks in the fall season.  In recent months we now have our own version of wildly indignant “Camo Karen’s” among our ranks. Very much like the popularized stereotype of the loud, overbearing, self-serving, and self-entitled suburbanite soccer moms except in camo, and inclusive of men, not to discriminate of course.

To answer the titled question in real time: “Nobody hates a turkey hunter more than another turkey hunter in my spot, tagging my birds”

What is observed to be fueling this enhanced discourse is the bickering, blaming and finger pointing over the significant decline in wild turkey populations in many states in the USA. One can argue the exact years, but I’ll put a stake in the ground that the mid to late 1990’s were peak years in Central New York, and early 2000’s in Northern New York. As found in natural science, you can expect some period of peaks and valleys to oscillate after a major peak in wildlife populations. Rather than stabilize after a decade from a major uptick in population, a down trend in many areas is something that we can agree on. This did not go unnoticed by our NYSDEC wildlife biologists in New York, or the NY NWTF Chapter.

Research has been conducted and continues to be on going with NYSDEC, SUNY ESF and in part funded by the NWTF, funds raised thru licenses and other sources. New York is not alone in this as other states have similar efforts and collectively looking to solve the overall decline and provide more accurate tools to manage the wildlife resource, more tightly manage regulations, bag limits, and harvest goals.

Camo Karen’s have been blasting all over social media what is justified to disparage and blame in their view for declining wild turkey populations. Here are a few examples that are rich in selfism, and envy of others:

• Fall seasons should have been closed long ago (no discussion on how spring seasons were not a valid season a century ago, turkey hunting use to be done only in the fall. Before their time therefore did not exist.)
• Shooting hens or bearded hens should never have been allowed in fall seasons. (never mind what wildlife biologists say can be sustainable or not.)
• TSS, Hevi Shot and other heavier than lead loads used to promote long range shots are unfair advantage and decimating turkey flocks.
• Nonresident hunting should have been draw only or not allowed all together. Resident hunters are entitled to “their turkeys” We should double, even triple the cost of NR licenses and reduce their bag limit to one bird only, no matter how many tags residents are allowed.
• Grand Slams, Royal Slams, World Slams, 49 State Slams, Washington State Slams, Canadian Slams, Mexican Slams and so on are solely responsible for over harvesting declining populations (as expressed there must be 100K+ turkey hunters traveling and committing gobbler genocide each spring.)
• Despite declining numbers of hunters overall, States should not be promoting hunting tourism, or paying outdoor TV shows or outdoor writers to promote hunting to bolster future generations of hunters. Greedy capitalism is to blame.
• TV outdoor shows filming hunts as nonresident hunters is a level up offense and single handedly responsible for population declines and causes resident hunters to put up with others shooting “their turkeys.” You Tubers are the scourge of the turkey hunting fraternity and cause of declining turkey populations
• Advertising of great public land locales through tourism practices, social media has single handedly ruined the sport and decimated these hunting grounds. Odd that I can recall hunting guide articles that came out every year that gave advice on where to hunt on WMA’s with the best odds of success since I started hunting in 1985.  I recall reading similar articles in very old hunting magazines in hunting camp.
• Any and all modern use of decoys, GPS, google earth, TSS, reaping, fanning, rifles, etc. have made turkey hunting easy, unfair, and decimated the populations wherever used.

As a disclaimer, the claims, opinions are posted repeatedly in social media, not my own opinion. I do take issue with fanning, reaping, stalking as safety concerns, and long range shots for an ethical viewpoint. None of which I would consider responsible for mass decimation of turkey populations.

In perusing through so many of these utterances, one can reasonably conclude that the self-serving “Nobody Hates a Turkey Hunter More Than Another Turkey Hunter Within Eyesight Of Their Hunting Spot” is the probable motivation.  

The current situation with declining numbers did not happen overnight, and as far back as I got into it and long before I started, wildlife research evolves, and especially so with the advancement of data collection technologies and methods. The predictive weather modeling tool for influences on brooding success came out in the late 1990’s as biologists were concerned how it might impact flocks after successful trap and transfer programs were winding down. Similar research on using satellite imaging data for modeling land use types was identified as a significant influence on turkey populations. Research continues on gobbling activity, predator impacts, how far turkeys move due to hunting pressure, causals of avian diseases, and more recently what percentage of all these factors are impacting the declines as a sort of super storm.

Hunting licenses, bag limits, length of seasons, legal hours, legal implements, and methods are all under the direct control of wildlife agencies. They require vetted data, and practical modeling tools to set hunting season particulars, not the anecdotal arm chair bravado that we hear or read so much of. There are some cases of politics dictating policy. We are much better off when that does not happen. The loss of quality sustainable habitat, disease, poor brooding conditions are significant detractors of wildlife populations that we have limited or no control over.

It is my opinion that it is human arrogance to think we have the ability to compete with Mother Nature in a managed and regulated hunting construct when it comes to the massive effects of cold wet spring weather, disease, and predation. Market hunting was abolished over a century ago. The past decade, my stomping grounds saw only a few decent brooding seasons, and we now have more avian predators, a never ending supply of coyotes, and fishers which recently have taken hold. Folks that I have given permission to trap our place no longer engage in the activity. In the end if we continue to witness years of cold wet springs causing second and third nestings and having no significant impact on predators, no hunting seasons changes we can come up with are going to revitalize turkey flocks.

We can directly improve micro habitats. A lot of that is going on, can agree that much more could go on? As hunters we can also take up trapping or invite, give permission for trappers to come in and reduce predator numbers, mitigate nest predation, and improve survivability of prey species in general as well as our beloved wild turkey.

How many of us tolerate known poaching, rationalize taking more than our limit for a variety of entitled reasons? Sure, we cannot control what others do, but it starts with each of us. Public lands in my county are under hunted, yet flocks are shrinking there. I travel much farther than I like to in the spring, and have not taken a fall bird in NY in years. I still check on the fall flocks, but refrain from filling a tag. Spots that would hold 50-80 birds in the past now have 5-15 maybe, some spots none at all. That is my personal choice. You may decide differently.

In closing, adjustments, corrections to hunting seasons, methods, bag limits etc, will be acted upon based on the work of wildlife biologists and the evolving science that comes from ongoing research. The Camo Karen’s will not be a positive voice among the influencers that they envy so much. It is a bad look for us as hunters and only serves to be consistent with the hostile division we see across our country in far too many aspects of our daily lives. I submit that we ought to avoid all that in our refuge in the turkey woods…

-MJ

© 2021 Mike Joyner- Joyner Outdoor Media