Well folks, I told you there were no turkeys in east Tenn. So much for what I know. Unofficial totals for Greene County have the 2006 spring harvest at 1124 bearded birds. Statewide total unoffically(still counting) is at 35,466...that compares to 31,806 in 2005 and 32,461 in 2004. I believe the Greene county number is a tenn state record for any county in a single spring season.

Nope, there are no turkeys in East Tennessee. 1124! Wow!

What a season, ya got any left?

barry

Time to pull out the old Delorme and check out Tennessee

Seems like we just might have the county record harvest at 1124 gobblers.
We might also hold the county record for number of turkey hunters!
GS...

What was the ChuckSwan Kill?

GN,
Do you know where I could find the numbers for the rest of the state?

my info came from the Nashville offfice of TWRA... this sunday, the Knoxville paper had a story that referenced a lower number statewide. apparently some of the computer-check stuff did not work and they have computer checked birds as well as the old tag system checks to count....so it may be a while before they have an exact number, but he numbes were given to me as "close".

thanks
I heard of a few folks having to use the old system when the computer went down.

Mayh ave spoken too soon here ...It turns out tht one of the bilogists tells me that the number I was given may have inadvertantly contained some fall birds, as they are working around with tags to try to sort out what goes where ...in fact, there is a number floating around of lessthan 32,000 birds statewide for the spring that might be correct....they are still shuffling around on the numbers. Interstingly the state turkey season and limits for next year will be set today at the commisision meeting and they do not yet have a final kill /young of the yearratio/ or other pertinenet information total for he season just completetd. Also o nthe agenda is a proposal to allow deer baiting. BUT fall hunters annot take turkeys over bait. That will cerainly create some issues for the turkeys in the fall...drawing turkeys in to a deer site would tempt a bunch of deer hunters to lay some down I think.

I've been gripping about the TWRA Politicans and their so called management practices for years. Beats anything I've ever seen!!
Guess maybe they need another raise?
GS...

The incredible thing here about Greene Co is that the spring turkey season has only been open in that county for , at most , 20 years. So here is a county that comes from a stocking program through TWRA in the late 70's and early 80's and goes to a harvest at around 1000 birds. Despite the fact that GS 1946 , the Hopson boys and I and others do not like the publicity of this success, I suspect there is not another county in the US that has experienced that kind of explosive turkey growth in a 20 year span. Those cow pastures are powerful cattle producers.

I think the numbers would be higher for some of the small counties in TN (like Hancock) if it wasn't so hard to find an open check station.