http://m.roanoke.com/sports/outdoors/co ... l?mode=jqm

In the turkey section he said, underutilized. I say undermanaged. He said to kill the second one you must kill the first one. No logic to me in a good turkey management plan.

Earl

Earl,
I was at the Board meeting when this proposal was authorized for publication. I had reviewed the turkey proposal that was previously published prior to the Board meeting and the only change recommended for turkey was to eliminate fanning and reaping. Based on the discussion at the meeting the two bird daily limit was raised in a committee meeting the day before the Board meeting and made it into the staff proposal. I do not like it, personally.
Terry

I think in regards to eliminating doe season in National Forests I'm all for it. However, I think just reducing the harvest doesn't get you where you need to be population wise all by itself. The issue is habitat and more habitat. There's virtually no food in the National Forests for deer unless there is a great and I mean great mast crop. They need to cut and cut and cut mature timber and create additional food sources that are repeatable and sustainable. The same thing that benefits all game (think Grouse and Turkey and Deer) is better cover. Better cover for food, nesting, hatching, raising young. Coyote trapping and bounties on same probably wouldn't hurt either. Couple no cover, with hemorrhagic fever, coyotes, CWD etc and you will quickly see deer numbers are decreasing. What many folks are missing is there are less hunters now then ever before (not counting bear hunters) and part of the reason is the natural aging of the hunting population, coupled with potentially new hunters not wanting to go to the National Forests and not seeing any game.

Regarding Turkey killing two per day. I think if your going that route you have to at least say 1 bird per day on private lands only. Not public land.

Don't have a dog in the fight on beer hunting increases. Beer hunters seem to have a strong lobby and their voices are being heard.

What do I think? 1 Bird per day period! What I see is turkeys getting shot up by people trying to kill the second. It is attractive to out of state hunters and that is why it is proposed.

Every year we all wring our hands waiting to see what the hatch will be, now they want to up the daily bag limit. Not in agreement with this at all. Are turkeys at record numbers in our state or is this a move to increase out of state hunters, i.e. revenue? I feel its the latter, I want to know the science that backs up this change. Don't just throw out an idea without numbers to support it.

Agree 100%. And the more beers they kill the louder they get!

Tenn has four bird limit and about 6 plus weeks of a season. Ky has two bird limit and three week season. Neither allows two birds a day. Interestingly Ky kills about same number of birds as Tenn does, with half the season limit and half the days. Both usually between 30-34,000 birds.

I think Tenn is very good to great in middle part of state and average in west and east fwiw.

I don't know much about Va turkey hunting or management but I do know trying to manage turkeys for revenue and not the protection of the base flock is a huge error.

Another thought, whats to stop someone from lining up a shot to try to kill two birds in one shot? You just know somebody's gonna try it, gotta boost the ego. Still baffled by this.

No logic in this or, or the proposal to increase incidental either sex turkey kills by deer hunters.

I may get lynched on here.. but I am for it.. I would like the option of two in one shot or two per day .. I have had many times when I had to wait for one to clear another to be legal.. I purposely waited for two to line their heads up once on a hunt in SC and it was quite a thrill to kill them both in one shot.. it doesn't change the season limit or the length of the season, so I see no harm in it other than if you take a bad shot on a fleeing bird after you kill the first one, but if you take a bad shot then you would probably take one anytime.

Where I hunt in Prince William, Fairfax, Loudoun, Rappahannock, Fauquier, & Culpeper Counties, the deer #s were way down this year. I'm no biologist but I think it has to do w/ liberal bag limits, predation (coyotes), liberal bag limits, disease, & liberal bag limits - in that order...

I bear hunt w/ dogs & have taken 2 the last 2 years. My group really tries to not shoot anything smaller than 200 lbs. which really isn't that big of a bear though but at least we let a lot go. Most of the time it's not that hard to catch the dogs off a track or leash them at a tree. Where it can get difficult is when they're bayed up in the rocks/holes & it can be a PITA getting ahold of your dogs, but it's doable.

For turkeys, even though I don't kill as many as some of you guys, I see the #s headed the same way the deer #s did if they increase the bag limit to 2/day. I'd personally rather they keep it 1/day.

Might as well jump in on a topic that is controversial . What difference does it make if you kill your limit in one day or it takes the entire season to do it ? The limit is three per license year . I personally don't see a difference except the amount of time each individual would spend hunting . Maybe I'm wrong ??

BTW , great forum and looking forward to making new friends

Here's one of my concerns with increasing the limit to 2 per day...

Hunter calls in 2 longbeards, kills the first, second bird starts to fly away, hunter tries to fill second tag and takes a questionable shot at the gobbler flying away, gobbler continues to fly away but takes some shot to the body, gobbler crawls under log 2 days later and dies.

Rinse, repeat...

Be happy with the one gobbler you've killed that day and save the other one(s) for later.

Leave it at 1 per day.

It seems very greedy to me to want to kill more than 1 per day. Taking questionable second shots, lining up heads etc. In my opinion is teaching bad hunting practices to the next generation. Hunters might even take a poor or rushed 1st shot if they think they have an opportunity to get a 2nd. I think it will raise the amount of wounded and unrecoverd birds. And that is the opinion of an out of state hunter, it is not more attractive to me.

Freddy yourself and a couple others have brought up also mine and others concern. I have seen and heard of that in other states that allow 2/3 birds a day and I have even heard folks say here a Quantico and AP Hill that they would love to shot 2 birds with one shot. That is worse then as you stated shot one and take a shot at the other one running or flying away. Lets hope common sense management practices are implemented first before something like this passes.


Earl