Spring Turkey Season Starts Late?

[CritterGitter]

I have talked with some guys that think Ohio's spring turkey season comes in at least 2 weeks to late. I do think that 4/28/03 seems a little late for an opener so I thought I would throw this poll out there and see what others think. I have not submitted a poll before so if I mess it up you can just reply to the thread??? LOL

CG

[george tinkham]

its that way due to the breeding time...don't want to wipe em out completely do you

[M.Magis]

I usually back the ODNR on most everything, but they are slowly ruining our spring turkey season. Their excuse that it's to protect the hens is ridiculous! That's why we have the law of bearded turkeys only. Sure, some mistakes will be made, but never enough to hurt the population. The same mistakes are made later in the season too. I'm not sure about every county in Ohio, but Guernsey could stand to lose some hens. If some counties still need time to build up popultions, then bring them in later, though I do not believe for a minute that it makes a difference. Far too many other states do just fine with earlier seasons.

[Thunderflight]

Unless they start letting you take a turkey a day I doubt we'll be whipping them out any time soon.

Thunderflight

[Ðe§perado™]

It does seem to be ok where I hunt at. But you all know that the ODNR knows best...:rolleyes:

[Lance]

Last year people were complaining that the birds were all hen'd up and moving it up a week sure won't fix that, it will make it worse. Leave it the way it is and let nature decide the gobbling the rest of the way.

[Turkeyfoot]

I say leave it as it is but I would like to see the ODNR have an either sex spring season every 3-4 years to control the hen population a bit. After many of the hens are nesting later in the season, I've found it easier to call in the mature gobblers! The peak gobbling may be over by then but if you do your homework the big boys can be had!!......TF

[shrivl]

I am just thankful for a season at all. I remember going up in Guernsey Co. and you never heard or say a turkey. When I left in 1994 the turkeys started appearing in established numbers. I glady hand over my money to get the opportunity to hunt Ohio longbeards even if its only for a week. I see birds, they are noisy, and the woods are not over run with hunters. Whatever date they choose is fine with me, just so I get enough notice to schedule vacation time.

[M.Magis]

My biggest problem with making the season even later than it was, is for the new hunters. After a couple of years of rarely hearing a gobble, much less getting the chance to work a few birds, many people are going to give up. The fun just isn't there anymore, and that's what we need to keep new people interested in the sport.

[Lance]

I think the suggestion is to make it come in earlier.

[george tinkham]

i hope that ain't swipes at the odnr who brought us this wonderful bird to hunt,think about it

[CritterGitter]

This was just submitted as a poll of what hunters think about when the season opens. I for one mean no disrepect to the ODNR. I am proud of the hunting and fishing opportunities afforded us in this state! Without the ODNR we wouldn't have record class bucks and lots of gobblers to pursue. I think that people sometimes forget that the ODNR is made up of professionals. These people have studied biology, chemistry, ecology and wildlife to a great extent. They don't just make decisions based on a feeling or a hunch. While I would like to see the season open a little sooner, I understand and accept the season as it is. I have lots of ideas about the deer bow season as well, but I will save those for another time! LOL
:D

CG

[george tinkham]

good post,a lot seemed to forget who the odnr is an take some armchair quarterbacks word over theirs...but on the other hand they take hunters imput ...actually they rely on it quite a bit and they ask for our input too...i think they deserve more respect then some give them...to me if they give a goo reason for why not,then i figure they've done more research and had more xperience than anybuddy and many of them are hunters to boot

[john]

if odnr ended up changing the seaon opener earlier,what would happen if we ended up having a "normal winter",would opening day end up when there was still snow on the ground.its been along time since we've had a real ohio winter...just my 2 cents!!!!

[Thunderflight]

Actually the ODNR is one of the better state DNR's I've seen. The only beef I have is how they rape residents with tag rates WAY higher than other states.

TF

[george tinkham]

i've lived in 4-5 other states and none compared to ohio and this includes tx

[Thunderflight]

South Carolina has a pretty good DNR. Our problem is we just don't have many big deer (at least in the low country).

TF

[george tinkham]

the only way the south can get the real big bruisers is buy them from game farms...

[C.C.]

if you want to see an earlier season i feel it should be just like deer in the fact that there is a earlier BOW ONLY season. try that with the longbeards.;)

[george tinkham]

seems tx does all it can to get things bigger...farm deer and bring in florida bass cause naturally thei game/fish don't grow that big.at least the fish are affordable to the average guy,not so with the deer

[Ðe§perado™]

Thats true george.

CC, I would love the turkey season to have a bow only season, then followed by a gun season.

[salmoide]

are we getting to have a fall hunt this year? did we have one last year? if not i'd go for a spring and a fall season, we got plenty of birds. if were worried about takin too many reduce the limit just have to seasons.

[Beau Martin]

I grew up in Wisconsin and as a kid we didn't even have a Turkey season. Now I live in Ohio and have had the operitunity to hunt these willy old birds, to no avail of corse, but have still enjoyed it. I beleive the DNR dose everything it can to please the hunters and to make sure that there is enough wildlife to continue into the futcher. Heck I have yet to harvest a buckeye deer letalone a turkey(thats a nother story lol), but still enjoy it. So sould we all!

[george tinkham]

there were very few deer and practically no turkey in 1960.the odnr has done quite well with the "money" animals...hopefully they will do more with the pheasants ,quail and grouse...and the snowshoe rabbit.

[jcdflint]

Originally posted by C.C.
if you want to see an earlier season i feel it should be just like deer in the fact that there is a earlier BOW ONLY season. try that with the longbeards.;)


I have seen hens on eggs almost two weeks ago. it seems in the last two years the season has started a little late. I think CC is right a early bow season would be really cool. with no real big inmpact on the birds. both sex would be good too. Jeff

[OHBOW76]

You guys say turkey season is too late, try hunting PA where the season doesn't even open until the beginning of May last weekend in April.I had to deal with it for years.It doesnt make for easy hunting...

[Limbhanger]

I hear ya OHBOW76,that's why I usually go to Ohio also.Just can't seem to wait till the 30th,when I know others 10min. away are already hunting,it's just not fair.:D

By the way,who dug up this old tread?:confused: 2003

[10Gauge]

This was an old post (poll) from 2003 if I'm not mistaken and the opener was late back then!

I think it is about right this year given weather conditions in the state over the last 2-3 years. Could the season start too early? I don't think so, it might take a little pressure off the birds if the season were 6-8 weeks long and started in early April as opposed to mid-late month. Birds in Southern Ohio, along the Ohio River have been gobbling and struttin as early as two weeks ago. I'd like to see the state split into a Northern and southern zone with 2 different starting and ending dates to extend our season a bit.

[shotgun]

I live in lawrence county which as far south as you can go in ohio. I dont think the season can really be to early here. I think you could hunt them in march as long as the weather is cooperative. But the gobbling and strutting always starts in march around here. Im not sure about other parts of the state, id imagine the far north is atleast 2 weeks behind. That being said many times the last week of the season is dead quiet around these parts

[Buckmaster]

On March 11, I awoke to about 10 gobbles from all directions. It would have been a good day hunting.

[bluedog]

Hi everyone! I've already introduced myself last fall on the deer hunting forum and have been lurking around the turkey hunting forum. I love both kinds of hunting, but turkey hunting is my passion. I probably shouldn't jump in and make my first post on a subject that really riles me up, but here goes anyway.

Oh, and one bit of background info. I helped work on the campaign against Issue 1 (the one that would have banned dove hunting) back in 1998. I felt honored to have been chosen to film a commercial to fight Issue 1. Back then, our theme was that popular opinion should have little influence on setting hunting seasons. Hunting seasons, primarily, should be set based on scientific studies of whatever species is being hunted and how to maintain a healthy population and allow hunting at the same time. Until last year, the ODOW did a good job of listening to its bioloigists when it came to setting hunting seasons. Now Ohio has moved the spring turkey season earlier than it ever has been. Why? Well there is no sound biology behind the decision. In fact it goes against all the current thinking on how spring season should be set.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has a complete guide that goes over why spring turkey season should open near the median date of hen incubation. There are lots of references on studies that show things like.....early seasons cause an increase in illegal hen mortality.....and early seasons take too many toms out of the breeding population before breeding is finished causing an increase in infertile clutches.......and gobbling activity declines as hunters enter the woods and not because birds are done gobbling for the season (I found this study particularily interesting. It was done in Iowa in 1996 I believe.). Anyway, the complete report is at http://library.fws.gov/BTP/Wild_Turkey_BTP-R5001-1999.pdf . Unfortunately, I've tried opening the site tonight (Thursday) and it doesn't seem to be working.

So for pretty much a summary of that 104 page report, you can read Bob Eriksen's article at http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/pgc/cwp/view.asp?a=482&q=161178

There is also a good article by the West Virginia DNR that does have the list of references from the US Fish and Wildlife Service report. It can be found at http://www.wvdnr.gov/Hunting/SpringTurkReg.shtm

Here is a quote from the Pennsylvania Game Commission report December 2003:
"The authors recommend against this (early opening) option for the following biological reasons. Although many hens are bred by April 15th, the peak of nesting (incubation) does not occur until May 1st. The average PA statewide incubation date from a ten year study, 1953-1963 was April 28th. More recently, during a radio-telemetry study (1999-2001) on South Mountain in south-central PA, the average incubation date for adult hens was May 8th and May 13th for juvenile hens. Pennsylvania's season is set to favor the resource rather than the hunter, particularily when the extent of benefits and harm are not well known. It is recommended that the spring season should continue to start on or near May 1st."

To my knowledge there have been two recent studies of hen incubation in Ohio, both in the southern part of the state. In 2002, the median incubation date was found to be April 29th (Range April 13th-May 18th). There was a second study that I can't find the info on right now, but I think it may have been 2001? Anyway, the median incubation date was around May 2nd.

I encourage anyone who is interested in taking care of our wild turkey population to read the above links. When I first heard about the earlier season, I, too, was all excited about hunting sooner. But wow, the more research I do and the more I talk to the wild turkey biologists, Ohio appears to be going down the wrong track. If we want to hunt this magnificent species, we have to protect it as well.

Happy reading!!!! LOL!!!!! Whether I can convince anyone that Ohio's season opens too early or not, either way, I love this forum and just being apart of the hunting community. What a special group of people!

Diane

[Buckslayer1]

The birds here in Ashtabula CO.will be nesting late this year. Were under a winter storm right now with snow on the ground. We also had a long hard winter with lots of snow and the birds are still grouped up. I think bringing the season earlier this year is going to hurt the birds in northeast Ohio.

[Buckslayer1]

WE got 10 inches of snow on the ground from the storm. If the turkeys were starting to lay eggs there coverd in snow now.