Numbers down?

[mipubbucks24]

I’ve have been seeing a lot of people saying the numbers are down. My brother swears they are down because fur prices are down, I can’t confirm any of that as I am not a trapper. What I have seen in southern Michigan, it seems like pockets are packed with turkeys and other areas that had big flocks 5/6 years ago are way down. I used to see a couple flocks of 30 plus birds on my road, but the last couple years they have moved to different areas and the biggest flocks are about 10 birds, also have not seen the same number of birds driving around as in the past. My friend hunts a property that backs up to my house and he has had no success the last 2 years after about a decade of success before that. I just think multiple factors.
Very wet springs the last 2/3 years, Lots of predators. That being said, I scored pretty early on public, my wife killed on public, called one in for my friend on private, and my father in-law came out from PA and scored on private. So it had been a good year. What Michigan lacks in deer hunting it kinda makes up in turkey hunting, kinda.

[Jackson Marsh]

The main area I hunt has had lower numbers the past two seasons...hopefully that improves.

[Dewey]

I don't have a tag so of course turkeys are everywhere. Funny how that works.

I'm over in Iowa scouting this week and been hearing a lot of gobbling the last few days. Bumping into a lot of birds while walking around and seeing plenty in fields while driving. Can't say if the population is up or down here because I have no idea how it was before but seems like plenty of birds to hunt.

Same in WI. I have been bumping into a lot of birds in some areas and none in others. Just like deer hunting.....you gotta be where they are.

[Trout]

I couldnt drive anywhere without seeing them before my season started, now I only see them in people's yards. Here in northern MI our flocks broke up earlier than normal, same with breeding activity. I've had some close calls with birds but it's definitely more like a traditional late season hunt the last two weeks rather than being in the peak of the rut.

[Tim H]

Last Saturday I spent all day in zone 3. We started extremely early in the morning and heard about 3 gobblers. When it got light they hushed up and we never heard em again. Moved to another location and got one to gobble, but he wasn't interested in what we had. From that moment on we went to probably another 20 spots and didn't hear any gobbles the rest of the day. Even in the truck we didn't see any in the fields. We hunted really hard and put a lot of boots to the ground and miles on the truck and maybe saw 4 hens in total all day. No Jakes, No Toms. I was more surprised than disappointed because I thought we'd see more.

[Swedishbowhunter]

I too feel like i have been seeing turkeys a lot, smaller groups maybe. I had a huge tom scare the daylights out of me yesterday when I almost kicked him.

[matt1336]

I’ve been seeing plenty of birds. BUT some of the properties that had birds last year aren’t as full as last year. One property was full last year and has next to zero this year. Weird how that works. I shot two so far...I may or may not go for a third. I like whitebass fishing. Lol

[brancher147]

I hear more people struggling this year in WV and harvest numbers are down with more pressure than usual due to people being off. Most people blame the weather and as VABowkill said it was really warm in March then turned cold for turkey season and got colder as season went on. Has been snow and frost last few nights where I hunt. But it’s been my best year and tagged out in VA and WV and knew of a bunch of birds-way more than usual. So I don’t really know what to make of it...

[Redman232]

I drove 70 miles in my local area, basically zig zagging to find birds because it seemed like they disappeared once season started. Private lands, still not a ton of turkey hunters in my area. Basic story was, when it was cold birds were flocked up big time, 30-40 in fields. The couple of days we had that were warm birds were all over the place. About 50% of our ag fields were fallow last year and got sprayed in the fall, so not a normal green up on top of it already being behind normal. Very different year for sure, but seems like there are still plenty of birds around. Pretty simple if it was cold you wouldn't see much and if it was warm they were wandering all over.

[Net Guy]

Numbers seem down. In the central part of the state, I found pockets of birds but not widespread. I was in parts of portage and marathon county and those counties got pounded with several major thunderstorms/tornadoes last year and noticed the habitat was drastically different this year from years past because of it. I wonder if that took out some of the population as well? Had to have impacted it somehow. However, I will say I saw a fair amount of jakes in those counties but not the toms. That leads me to believe that the harsh winters from a couple of years ago did a number on the birds.

In Jefferson County, I saw much fewer birds than normal. Again, maybe we're seeing the impact from the harsh winters a couple of years ago? This past winter seemed pretty good compared to the previous ones. There was also some major flooding last spring and fall so I'm sure that hurt too.

[headgear]

They must have all moved to MN, ten years ago almost no turkeys in north central mn, now they are everywhere. Even seeing a few way up within an hour of the Canadian border.

[Grizzlyadam]

Here in CT there are tons of turkeys. It's not unusual to see flocks of 30. The state just upped out tags to five birds on public or private and extended hunting hours to all day. The harvest is up so far this season over last for a variety of reasons the biggest likely is that there are more hunters afield this spring. All fun and games now but I fear we may see some negative results in years to come if too many birds are killed.

Years ago I believe we had even more turkeys than we do now. There was a three bird limit and my brother and I would usually tag out the first 15 minutes of opening day. We didn't even use calls or decoys. These days I'm satisfied with one or two birds per season. No need to be greedy.

[Jmitch]

I'm finding average to maybe slightly below based on the last few years anyway. Probably well below average if you go back farther. That being said I'm finding birds most days I'm out. Hunted 15 or so days so far and can say I've only had one maybe 2 mornings I wasnt jn the game at all and killed 2 birds out of 3 tags so far. Thats mostly hunting until around 7 am before work everyday public and some private. Hopefully this drier spring weve had means good things for upcoming years

[JAK]

Ive noticed the numbers are way down in my area. Hopefully they have a good hatch this year.

[greenhorndave]

WI Zone 3 on public? Slim Pickens.



Heck, Zone 3 in general. I didn’t see but one or two hens on private in all the driving around that I did. And other than on roost, NO gobbling.

Kinda rough.