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[Turkey please]

Hey all forgive if a newbie stupid question, but is there a way to see where birds have been taken in a zone?  I located a roost, met the Tom two days in a row but he wouldn’t come close enough.   Had to wait a week (cause my A permit ended) for new permit C week and wondering if someone else got him, before I waste a morning.   Nothing is calling at night I think maybe because of the wet weather.

thanks.  

[mazzgolf]

21 minutes ago, Turkey please said:

Hey all forgive if a newbie stupid question, but is there a way to see where birds have been taken in a zone?  I located a roost, met the Tom two days in a row but he wouldn’t come close enough.   Had to wait a week (cause my A permit ended) for new permit C week and wondering if someone else got him, before I waste a morning.   Nothing is calling at night I think maybe because of the wet weather.

thanks.  

Nope. The state only publishes numbers after the season, and for specific zones only. Nothing during the season. And nothing about where inside a zone birds are taken. You won't see a map, for example, with dots showing you where individual birds were taken within a zone. (that stuff isn't even part of the harvest report - at most the state has data on  the township but that is never published in the after-season reports that I've ever seen). For example, here's the harvest data report for 2022 https://dep.nj.gov/wp-content/uploads/njfw/turkey_harvest_report.pdf

[nmc02]

I am not a turkey hunter, but hear many complaints about lack of birds....it is obvious in the stats there are less and less birds throughout the years.

Obviously concerning...has the state done anything to help w this???

[Jcol6268]

14 hours ago, nmc02 said:

I am not a turkey hunter, but hear many complaints about lack of birds....it is obvious in the stats there are less and less birds throughout the years.

Obviously concerning...has the state done anything to help w this???

Yes. They are working with NWTF to complete some studies. Led and funded by NWTF from my understanding. It’s a starting point. 

[deerstalker420]

Well maybe state can start by lowering the limit from 29 down to something reasonable like maybe 2-4 per season. We only state in country with double digit limit on turkeys

[gobblergetter]

12 hours ago, deerstalker420 said:

Well maybe state can start by lowering the limit from 29 down to something reasonable like maybe 2-4 per season. We only state in country with double digit limit on turkeys

The number of permits are limited.....per zone.

[chenrossi]

15 hours ago, deerstalker420 said:

Well maybe state can start by lowering the limit from 29 down to something reasonable like maybe 2-4 per season. We only state in country with double digit limit on turkeys

here we go again....new here?

[deerstalker420]

No what don’t you understand. One bird per day. I could buy enough permits to shoot a bird every day. Never happen but it could

[bushden]

I

On 5/7/2024 at 7:18 AM, deerstalker420 said:

Well maybe state can start by lowering the limit from 29 down to something reasonable like maybe 2-4 per season. We only state in country with double digit limit on turkeys

The lack of turkeys are not a Hunter caused problem. Predators such as Coyotes, Fox, Raccoons, Bobcats and the lack of trappers taking adequate numbers of these predators are the main problem in my opinion.

Edited May 8 by bushden

[chenrossi]

1 hour ago, deerstalker420 said:

No what don’t you understand. One bird per day. I could buy enough permits to shoot a bird every day. Never happen but it could

So can everyone else and just like everyone else, it would never happen that 1 individual would legally shoot that many. Just because someone “could” doesn’t mean they are or ever will. It’s the mootest of all moot points because ~95% of hunters are only shooting 1-2 birds regardless of how many permits they buy anyway and a literal minority take more a couple more beyond that. It gets beat to no end every spring. 
 

[fab]

With bird numbers so low where all the left over tags are I don’t see anyone taking more than 3 or 4 in a season   
 

all the studies I read say you can take up to 30 percent of the Tom’s out of an areas with no impact on population 

 

i does blow my mind how few few jakes make it to be 2 year old birds 

 

I wana add the weather man messed up today.   I slept in but I Should have been up and ready to leave at 720 ish.   

[Turkeyslayer]

14 hours ago, deerstalker420 said:

No what don’t you understand. One bird per day. I could buy enough permits to shoot a bird every day. Never happen but it could

I don’t think Hunters are the cause of the problem as I understand what your saying as yes you can shoot one bird per day and with enough money yes it is possible but that being said the best hunters when the turkey population was great was shooting 10 birds (which is a lot) now those same guys are fighting for 2. I understand why people want the permits reduced but at the same time once you reduce the permits I don’t think you’ll ever see them go back up again (Due to antis a lot easier to get rid of things then add)

I think the best place to start would be habitat management creating areas where turkeys can thrive and have proper nesting and food. Then add incentives for predator management. and if all that happens and doesn’t work aim at reducing permits. but the thing is they can do this on one area pick a state land and do it on and see if the numbers rise

[fab]

I think birds of pray including crows take out a lot of chicks as well.   I had a hawk by me years ago get every poult The hen had.  
 

in our pond in town. One day their was a duck with 9 chicks.  2 weeks later she had 2.  The old lady’s that walk the lake every morning told me the ravens got the chicks 

 

add that to every thing else that eats eggs.  And then eats poults.  Plus eats adult birds.  Plus a few get hit by cars.   I did see 3 already this year in nj     

its amazing any make it   Lol    They got a tough life    Can’t even relax for a second     

If you want to reduce hunting  numbers maybe then I think shooting hens in the fall might have little bit impact.   So few are taken but it’s something 

 

regardless it’s sad at the numbers we have in north jersey now 

Edited May 9 by fab
Tupo

[Fred Flintstone]

On 5/7/2024 at 7:18 AM, deerstalker420 said:

Well maybe state can start by lowering the limit from 29 down to something reasonable like maybe 2-4 per season. We only state in country with double digit limit on turkeys

I totally agree with this. No more then 4 Spring Gobblers should be the Max Limit. Even Alabama  has lowered down from 5 to 4 Spring Gobblers. 

    I still have the old DEC  paper results of Turkey Kills covering Fall + Spring kills covering all Countys in New York going back to the early 198os.

   In Western NY- where the Limit has always been 1 Fall Turkey- the Fall Kill Count in some years " More then Doubled" the Spring Kill. Some Countys had in excess of 1,000 Turkeys Killed.

   Years later- Turkey Hunters were hearing Fewer Gobblers and were trying to figure out why.

  Those same reports showed- Rockland County Spring kill counts of 1,3 or Zero in the 1980s. Now Turkeys can be seen all along the Palasades Interstate Highway going into New Jersey. And nearby Harriman State Park/45,000+ Acres near the NJ Border has tons of Turkeys ambling about. Same number of Predators- just No Hunting allowed unfortunately. 

[mazzgolf]

From a conservation viewpoint, What does it matter if one hunter kills 100 or 100 hunters kill 1 each? Harvest is the same. NJ has a different system than other states, no? We have a quota of permits, and you can only kill 1 turkey per permit. That's different from, say, NY State where everyone can buy a turkey permit and hunt state wide. The only way to limit the harvest in that system is to have a bag limit per hunter. In NJ the permit quota system is the limit.

Meanwhile, I just had a hunt ruined 30 minutes ago when 2 coyotes just cruised by. That's 2 days in a row I witnessed predators hunting down turkeys. So the turkey problem isn't hunters killing Toms in the spring. And i really need to start trapping