bogobble

L King, I don' t know what the proper ratio is, but in my opinion, all states that are overly populated with hens, should allow hens to be taken durin the fall. Ar allows 1 turkey of either sex, and it' s bow only in my zone. I wish they would allow 2 turkeys in the fall, that way I couldn take a gobbler with my bow, and still take a hen, which would help with the gobbler to hen ratio. I mean, they let us thin out the doe population, which helps with the buck to doe, so why not the hens?
then we' ed have a little less competion durin the spring.
I saw a jake the other day with 5 dang hens. so, it' s way out of proportion down here to.

loner

our season here in ms runs from the third week in mar - may1st. the mdwfp sends all who participate in the spring survey, a detailed report by district on gobbling,number of gobbles,number of jakes and hens observed etc.i live in north ms and the gobbling peaks in the third week then begins to decline.obviously,due to 38% of the birds being killed the first weekend and most hunters in the woods the first three weeks,the gobbling declines for very obvious reasons.there are mature birds still around but they are not as vocal and very careful to screen the " real" hens before gobbling.i cranked up mature birds after 12:00 noon in the same place i could not kill them the last week of the season without a gun since my limit was filled april 1st.

Bobgobble2

Bo,just read an interesting article in this months News from the Roost put out by the NWTF.The article is about late season tactics and Eddie Salter one of H.S' s pro staffers and longtime turkey hunter/caller talks about the overall turkey population has increased so much across the nation that in most areas gobblers tend to have hens throughout the spring season making for some challenging hunting and quieter birds!I do beleive the popularity of the sport has grown so much that the first couple of weeks in most areas especially on public ground many of the active,vocal,birds get harvested as loner talks about in his post!When this happens your left with those birds that survive by being wise to the turkey hunter,that gobble far less,and our in the mode of having the hens come to him instead of him going to the hens!The age old question remains our we shooting the gobble out of the wild turkey??In a sense I beleive we do,because no turkey hunter is after that callshy,henned up gobbler,that gobbles far less than those jakes and 2 year olds that can rattle up any spring morning!We all when we take to the woods are after that bird that responds to our calls and presents us with a real opportunity to work him and without that bird being vocal we' re somewhat left out in the dark especially in new country or ground we have' nt scouted!Bottomline is in most areas and states I hunt vocal birds get harvested quick leaving more and more silent woods as the season progresses!!Bob

bennie

bogobble we had the same problem right across the river in bradley county. I got to go to three gobbling turkeys all season long. I actually heard more turkeys across moro creek in calhoun county than on our lease. The three leases that border ours had the same kind of luck as we did.

bogobble

that' s right Bob, that' s why I think they should let us thin out them dang hens!

bennie, did you get one this year? I got one the first mornin with my gun, and bowhunted the rest of season. missed a big gobbler at 2:00 one evenin at 15 yds.
I hit a limb