A Number Of States Have Reduced Spring Gobbler Bag Limits For 2022.

[Fred Flintstone]

  Scrolling Through,I came upon 4 States that have reduced their Spring Gobbler Bag Limits due to Declining Populations for the Spring of 2022. There could be more States in the Southeast especially. 

1. Ohio-- Spring Gobbler Limit reduced from 2 Gobblers to 1 Gobbler for 2022.  Personally, I think Ohio should have cut 1 week off and left the Spring bag at 2 Gobblers. 

2. Alabama-- For the Spring of 2022- Alabama has dropped the Spring Gobbler bag limit of 5 Gobblers down to 4 Gobblers and no use of Decoys during the first 10 Days of the Spring Turkey Season.

3. Georgia Drops the Spring Gobbler Limit from 3 Gobblers to a bag Limit of 2 Gobblers. Former President Jimmy Carter won't  be happy with this as he is known to Limit out each Spring.

4. Oklahoma-- Spring Bag Limit has been reduced to 1 Spring Gobbler for 2022.

   I did not check the whole list. In my home State of New York -there seems to be Dry zones of not many Turkeys and very Hot areas of plenty  of Turkeys similar to New Jersey. One older NY Spring Hunter reported getting Skunked for the 1st time since the mid 1970s. He always takes his 2 Gobblers. 

   I think right now the Northeast is in a better position  then the Southeast and some Western States as far as Turkey Populations. I plan to buy a good 5 Turkey Permits here in NJ  and hope for a better Spring up in the North Mountains.

  Luck out there this Spring to all.

[Fred Flintstone]

Alabama's  Decision  to have no Decoys during the first 10 days of their Spring Turkey Season could be followed by other States with Low Turkey Populations in Future Springs.

  The Realism of Today's  Decoys is unbelievable.  Has to be a game changer from the old Feather Flex Decoys. I have one of those that,I put out once or twice each Spring. 

[Shakyjake]

South Carolina also reduced the bag limit. It would be wise of NJ to do the same but as we know, money talks. 

[rgw]

Nj should go to one per person for a couple years 

[308federal]

6 minutes ago, Shakyjake said:

South Carolina also reduced the bag limit. It would be wise of NJ to do the same but as we know, money talks. 

Yup, two things to think about, more money in the coffers and let's wipe out everything, so we have fewer hunters with fewer opportunities.

The money talks? Remember the 2 nj slogans:

1. The hand in your pocket is probably not your own.

2. Welcome to nj, now open your wallet.

[Remember November]

Fred will you be conducting guided turkey hunts this year? Also could you recommend a good turkey call?

[Gobblengrunt]

…and NJ will still have its 30 turkey limit this Spring!  All about the money $$$

[vdep217]

1 hour ago, Gobblengrunt said:

…and NJ will still have its 30 turkey limit this Spring!  All about the money $$$

I get some areas are seeing a decline but in the areas I hunt I've never seen so many and this includes the state relocating birds from these areas the past 2 years.  Def strange that some areas are showing a decline while others are showing an increase

[Shakyjake]

2 hours ago, vdep217 said:

I get some areas are seeing a decline but in the areas I hunt I've never seen so many and this includes the state relocating birds from these areas the past 2 years.  Def strange that some areas are showing a decline while others are showing an increase

Every zone but 1 saw a decrease in harvest last year. All but 1. That says a lot about our population. 

[vdep217]

7 minutes ago, Shakyjake said:

Every zone but 1 saw a decrease in harvest last year. All but 1. That says a lot about our population. 

I get it but the question remains is it a decrease in population or a stabilization of s healthy population.  We went from zero turkeys in nj to what we have in not so long of a time. Who knows what the anser is but I'm just sharing my observations my areas last year and what I'm seeing this year are the most I've seen

[Shakyjake]

It’s a decline, no doubt about it. We have more predators now than at any point during our turkey restoration. Hawks, Eagles, coon, opossum, bobcat, bear, fisher, coyote, fox, feral cats, snakes….the list goes on and on. If you do some research, you’ll see that there is a direct correlation between a drop in fur prices and an increase in predators. Once the predators increase, the turkeys always suffer. State after state are experiencing the exact same situation. And most of those states are ones which have done turkey restoration projects much like ours. Connecticut, which is the only state that we can really compare ourselves to, actually began to see what we are now seeing about 5-6 years ago. 

[06roadking]

And still NJ treats coyotes as a game animal. Where I hunt, if you want to find coyotes, find the field that the turkeys fly down to. The coyotes will be there…

[hammer4reel]

1 hour ago, 06roadking said:

And still NJ treats coyotes as a game animal. Where I hunt, if you want to find coyotes, find the field that the turkeys fly down to. The coyotes will be there…

Exact thing I have noticed in Whitehouse and also pa 

coyotes are always around the turkeys more than the deer 

[SPEARFISH]

Hopefully I can find a couple this year.  Some properties I hunt have them all winter, and one they don't show up until spring.

[1957Buck]

18 hours ago, Gobblengrunt said:

…and NJ will still have its 30 turkey limit this Spring!  All about the money $$$

Just putting this out there In my yard I have had dozens of these Turkeys. NJDFAG labels them as Hybrid's  In Town there were many flocks with 8 -16 birds in them. Just strutting around in Yards - Crossing Roads with Little fear, I have had nests in my yard with some 14 eggs but with little success. and a few with a full success rate, Residents Complained of them Attacking them & Blocking them from their Yards,  The ones  in photo are the Last ones now since last year,  Blame has been Fox- Coyote's - Poaching - &  NJDFAG Trapping, 

Now would they being as Hybrids' be considered Huntable, or Trash Birds,  The Talk about low numbers in Nj may be do to the Rise of Predators in the Wild and Urban areas.    Even the Deer in the Fall have been been few but they follow the food sources.