TURKEY PERMITS A,B,C,D,E weeks picked up on line just now.

[gobblergetter]

1 hour ago, DBuck said:

Definitely declining, and it's not just NJ. I listen to a bunch of different turkey hunting podcasts and they're all saying the same thing, no matter what state their talking about.

Bobcat numbers are increasing in all states that are seeing decreased turkey populations....

Hummm.....I wonder ?....

And then there's the low fur prices and lack of trappers...

 

Edited March 27, 2023 by gobblergetter

[Fred Flintstone]

Since Frank's  Tackle is closed,I went to a New License  Agent- Borough of Ringwood. Turns out,I was the very 1st Hunter to buy a Turkey Permit there. I am now ready for Zones- 5,6,+ 7. I bounce around.

    I pulled all weeks- A,B,C,D,+ E. 

   LUCK TO ALL!!

[DBuck]

19 minutes ago, gobblergetter said:

Bobcat numbers are increasing in all states that are seeing decreased turkey populations....

Hummm.....I wonder ?....

And then there's the low fur prices and lack of trappers...

 

None of that helps, plus there seems to be more hawks around picking off the poults. But I think it goes beyond predation, I believe the pesticides they're putting in seeds and the pesticides farmers are using these days have something to do with it. But I'm no biologist.

[Bonefreak]

32 minutes ago, gobblergetter said:

Bobcat numbers are increasing in all states that are seeing decreased turkey populations....

Hummm.....I wonder ?....

And then there's the low fur prices and lack of trappers...

 

Mike…didn’t you help out w a turkey study a few years ago…something w the eggs….ever hear back from PA Commission of the results?

[gregtpal]

2 hours ago, archer36 said:

Looks like interest in Turkey Hunting is declining. 

I was thinking the same.

[gregtpal]

I had a 12B & 12E from first lottery, picked up 12A, 12C & two 12D's

[Bonefreak]

2 minutes ago, gregtpal said:

I was thinking the same.

The other theory turkey biologists have is that the population has leveled out to where it should normally be….and we were the lucky ones who have benefited from hunting the past 10-20-30 yrs of inflated #s….it’s a reasonable theory….but I’m not buying it & it sounds more of a cop out for the biologists who can’t figure it out, don’t wana put the work figuring it out, & not fighting for more predator management due to furry critters being cute and their politically appointed Directors shy away from effective wildlife management policies. Year round predator seasons would be a start!!

[gobblergetter]

39 minutes ago, Bonefreak said:

Mike…didn’t you help out w a turkey study a few years ago…something w the eggs….ever hear back from PA Commission of the results?

Yes I did

Never heard about results.

Usually never do

[Bad64chevelle]

14e was sold out at 10:02 when I logged in .

[Bonefreak]

2 minutes ago, Bad64chevelle said:

14e was sold out at 10:02 when I logged in .

I must have got lucky then cuz I got 14 A & E within those 2 mins!  Probably burned up all my luck getting permits n won’t hear a gobbler all season!!

[JerseyJaysTaxidermy]

Turkey hunting blows anymore.  

Used to be a blast when there was birds everywhere you went. I can run and gun every lease I got and not hear a bird for years.  When I first started around 2000 in zone 11 you couldn't not hear a bird anywhere you went. All you had to do was slam your truck door at crack of dawn- listen for the 5 gobbles in all directions..pick one and go hunt. Screw up and go do it again a half mile down the road. Got a bird every yr until they went mia. Now they are far and few between. (At least where I hunt)

I stopped buying tags. Unless I come across a spot with birds one day I'm sleeping in.

 

 

[fab]

I hunted from 91 to 2003 in nj.  Didn’t hunt again till 2020 because I was off due to Covid.  2020 was good to me.   21 I heard one bird far away. 22 didn’t hear a bird.  Hunted every day of A week   

 

Got a permit for 16a This year.  Let’s see if that’s better. 
 

i was in mt holly area early this month for work.   Saw 5 in 1 field and 13 in another field.   First flocks of birds I have seen in nj in 15 years.   

[nb6624]

You guys are late! This week is the best week to be in the woods.😜

[Bonefreak]

30 minutes ago, nb6624 said:

You guys are late! This week is the best week to be in the woods.😜

Nice!!  
 

more and more states are bumping their openers back so as not to interfere with their ritual. Theory is that the most dominant gobblers will mate first and if that dominate gobbler is harvested prior to spreading his dominant genes, inferior offspring will be hatched. Sounds reasonable but hunters miss a big chunk of the gobbling activity. 

[Jcol6268]

14 hours ago, mazzgolf said:

I geek out -- I have tracked the leftover permits available for the first OTC day for the past 3 years (so I can figure out the trends and know which are the hot zones/periods so I can know which 3 permits I should buy first at 10:00, then determine which I should buy in my second fast-finger round at 10:01 -- I don't fool around with this stuff  ... some of my zones/periods literally sell out in the first couple minutes).

I concentrate on the south zones. This year there was, in general, slightly more left than the past 2 years. The pandemic effect is lessening, people going to back to work now, I think.

But it wasn't drastic. And one zone, 16, is getting more interest. I don't know if the quotas have changed (that would affect things).

Here's the difference between what was available first OTC day this year compared  to 2021 which was the first season sales that really got affected by the pandemic - by then is when many people were remotely working and had more time to turkey hunt:

(so, for example, you can see this year there were 4 less permits available OTC in 16B than in 2021, 23 less for 16C and 36 less for 16D, but more available for A and E!)

BTW: for the past 3 years, there wasn't a zone that was sold out after the lottery - every zone had at least a few permits available OTC... but some you need fast fingers because some would sell out within minutes. Don't expect to go to a license agent and be able to get those - by the time the guy at the machine finished typing in your CID number, they'd be gone).

Here's the year-over-year difference (the amount of permits we had available OTC this year compared to last year, virtually every zone had  more permits available this year):

 

I would consider certain zones sold out in the lottery, because they “sell out” during the lottery, only they don’t get claimed. For example, I put in for a Zone 14E permit, and don’t get it, but plenty of guys (both intentionally and unintentionally) don’t claim their permits. So then they are available in OTC. 
 

Pretty good data collection 👍. Straight up experience taught me the same. Hard lessons lol