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Turkey Hunt Should Bring Record Numbers

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Post  Carolina Kat Mon Apr 26, 2010 4:12 am

Hodge: Turkey hunt should bring record numbers

By Bob Hodge

Posted April 25, 2010 at midnight


All of the doom and gloom over the state's turkey hunters no longer setting harvest records has a life span of exactly three weeks.

Unless something happens - bad weather, a volcano in Pulaski, hunters simply getting bored - its likely the 2006 record of 35,877 won't be around when the season closes at sundown May 16. If it is, then 2010 likely will go down as the second-best turkey season in state history.

As of Friday morning, hunters had checked in 28,056 turkeys with, counting the two-day youth hunt, 22 days of hunting under their belts. That left 24 days to shoot another 7,821 turkeys to break the record.

Conceivably Tennessee's turkey hunters could finish the season with, oh, about 56,000 turkeys being checked in. If the season is not even half over, and the final 24 days are as good as the first 22, that's what the math says could happen.

It's more likely that a volcano would erupt in Pulaski than that many gobblers going down for a bunch of reasons. Why?

One, I know a couple of really good turkey hunters who are already done for the year. Hunters who kill even a single bird are in the minority, so you've got some of the best-of-the-best who have already put their guns away until next fall after tagging four gobblers.

Two, the weather has been uncommonly cooperative. So far you can count the number of days hunters have lost to bad weather on the fingers of one hand, although that was supposed to start changing this weekend. It may have been a little cold here or a little windy there, but Mother Nature has done her best so far.

Three, I know several hunters who have already killed a couple of gobblers and have slowed way down when it comes to spending time in the woods. One said he will hunt one or two more times at most after getting two turkeys the first week.

Four, maybe all the really dumb turkeys have already gone to that great roost in the sky. Three times this season I've either killed a turkey or been hunting with someone that killed a turkey and after it was all over said "That never happens." I've hunted eight times and the trigger has been pulled on five of those. That's four dead turkeys and one really scared turkey.

The only really bad hunt, no birds seen or worked, was Tuesday when I talked my son into hunting for the last three hours of the day in the pouring rain.

Some of the state's top turkey hunting counties have already surpassed 2009's totals with a half season to go. Maury County leads the way with 735, 32 more than were killed last season.

It's probably a good thing that the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency is proposing few changes to next season. When TWRA previewed its 2010-2011 hunting season proposals for the Wildlife Resources Commission on Thursday biologists recommended leaving the dates and bag limits alone.

The one change that turkey hunters should like is the fall quota hunts are being done away with. No, that doesn't mean you can't hunt turkeys in the fall, its just means that most counties will have an open season and a permit will not be needed. If the commission gives the plan a thumbs up, Knox County will have a season that runs Dec. 6-17 with a bag limit of one. Some counties will have fewer days, some will allow more birds and a few will be closed altogether.

Deer season got about the same sort of treatment during the preview, with dates and bag limits staying more or less the same. Six Unit B counties - Anderson, Claiborne, Grainger, Greene, Hancock and Johnson - will be moved from the five-day antlerless hunt during muzzleloader season to the 14-day hunt.

The special season quota hunts for deer are also being eliminated and most counties will simply have a season where antlerless deer can be hunted with rifles or shotguns.

But, somebody somewhere will have to find something about the agency's recommendations that they think will spell the end of hunting as they/we know it. Even so, unless something drastic happens in the next three weeks the gloom and doom turkey hunters are going to have to give it a rest.

Bob Hodge is a freelance contributor.

©️ 2010, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.

Carolina Kat
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Post  Californication Sat May 01, 2010 12:19 am

Kentucky needed about 600 birds to break the record as of this morning. the record is 29000 and a little change. If the weather isn't just terrible the next 10 days, we could see 35,000 birds. Regardless of the weather, we will shatter the record.
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Post  Californication Wed May 12, 2010 3:12 am

Haven't heard about Tennessee, but Kentucky reported 36000+ birds. Totally shattered the record. We've got too many birds. I hope they raise the limit to 3 or even 4 in the spring. Would love to see some kind of bonus or reward for an apprentice type hunt to educate new/novice hunters.
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