turkey age for Wacenturion

[bearpaw]

Great info...

I wished they would at least limit the late fall hunts to private land only, where the problems actually occur.

[tonymiller7]

Yotes are for sure a problem in NE Washington, I dusted one with my 870 a couple yeas back that came running into my hen call.  We had been seeing yote crap all morning with feathers in it too. 

[Elkpiss]

Hey Dan, here is a pic with your Kid and I.. Jim Buck took this photo.... Tell Jr. Archie say's hey..

[BOWHUNTER45]

Hey Dan, here is a pic with your Kid and I.. Jim Buck took this photo.... Tell Jr. Archie say's hey..

Nice 

[BOWHUNTER45]

Yotes are for sure a problem in NE Washington, I dusted one with my 870 a couple yeas back that came running into my hen call.  We had been seeing yote crap all morning with feathers in it too.

I seriously can not think of one year where we have not called in a yote ...not counting the one that was stolen from us as we were calling  shoot them all 

[Wacenturion]

Hey Dan, here is a pic with your Kid and I.. Jim Buck took this photo.... Tell Jr. Archie say's hey..

Will do...I'll send the picture on to him.
Thanks

[Wacenturion]

Completely agree with what Dan had to say about allowing two birds to be harvested in a day and fall hunting.  By the way, Dan, my dad was the other hunter who harvested the slam the same year you did back in '96.  It sucks to see the changes to turkey management that have occured since then.  It makes me feel old to talk about the good ol' days.  Wish we could turn back the clock.

I remember talking with you or your Dad or both, if I remember right, at a banquet.  Hope both of you are doing well.

[Wacenturion]

Thanks so much for the reply. I have seen this year, so many young birds in the 6 to 8 pound size range at Thanksgiving time, I didn't see how they could get to the 13 pound size of jake's by spring season.

I love to hunt spring birds normally with a 12 ga flint that I built. If I have a tag left over I will ambush a fall bird. I have tried to save the gobblers for spring and avoid a mature hen by taking a bird of the year, thinking they had the highest winter mortality rate. I have never seen a person hunting turkeys in the fall season, in the area where I live west of Deer Park, I do know they get hunted though.

I witnested the first release of Eastern's on Spencer road in Lewis county. They seemed to do well until the series of wet springs that began in 1995 or 96. I had seen as many as four flocks from Andy's tackle shop to Ethel the same trip,at the peak of that population.

I think it was you that told me that a coyote would have a very difficult time taking a healthy adult turkey.

The first release of Easterns was along time ago.  I remember that there was a few folks there to witness it.  I'm sure we talked, and I probably did tell you that.

[Wacenturion]

Yotes are for sure a problem in NE Washington, I dusted one with my 870 a couple yeas back that came running into my hen call.  We had been seeing yote crap all morning with feathers in it too.

I seriously can not think of one year where we have not called in a yote ...not counting the one that was stolen from us as we were calling  shoot them all 

Have called in a few myself.  Never shot any as I had too much time invested waiting on turkeys.  Sometimes as you know they can take forever, or it least it seems that way.

Want to really have some fun...call in a cougar and two kits, at like 12 yards.  Damn they are quiet and make you have second thoughts about pretending to be a turkey meal.   

In fact once in the Blues I as calling from a ridge way above a skidder that was behind a gate down below me.  After about 40 minutes there in clear view about 350 yards below me was a big tom, or should I say a huge tom heading in my general direction.  Thus I decided to try another area and left ...lol.

[Turkeyman]

Its been sad to see what our turkey hunting has come too. We had a great thing going for awhile, until the game department got involved. I seen it coming 10 years ago. Lets give out free turkey tag, lets kill to birds in one day on the east side, lets have a grouse hunt in the fall. Great Management

[PA BEN]

Where did you come up with the name Jenny's? Never heard that one.

[BOWHUNTER45]

Pa Ben ... The young hens are called jenny's  Now for some of you who are complaining about our turkey populations you have me baffled ...I agree with some of the issues but as far as not having enough turkeys  Your nutz  We have more turkeys than ever before ...hopefully this year will be a banner year since we had such a mild winter ...Let the games begin     You can also give a thanks to Wacenturion for being one of the main reasons we have turkeys in Washington ...Hope he does not mind me saying that but I know I appreciate what he has done    I have a video somewhere where he and Bill Jordon hooked up on a Washington Merriams hunt ....Years ago ...remember that Wacenturion .....Me and the wife just filled 3 boxes of videos I collected over the years and I think I have over 60 just on turkey hunting  It stinks to move !

[bearpaw]

I live in the middle of turkey central and it's not all doom and gloom. There are birds still out there to hunt but the population I would estimate at 20% to 60% of what it used to be depending on each local area. Sadly it is the public lands that have taken the biggest hit in population reduction.

WDFW should concentrate on holding late seasons where the damage occurs on private land only. Unfortunately hunters without private access can only hunt on public ground and that can actually push more birds onto private land where the damage occurs. So WDFW kept increasing late seasons to reduce damage. Doesn't make any sense to me.

The result is that birds are harder to find for the average joe hunter. I would like to see our birds managed to maximize opportunity for hunters while using hunting as a tool to keep turkeys off private lands where damage occurs. Late seasons on private land only could address this issue by encouraging turkeys to avoid private lands where they will get hunted. 

[bearpaw]

Two more things I would like to mention are weather and predation.

Weather
WDFW is not responsible for weather. Weather is the biggest factor affecting turkey populations. We had two back to back hard winters in NE WA, this greatly reduced the turkey numbers. We found lots of turkey remains near roosting trees immediately after those winters. At the same time we had rainy June and July weather so survival rates of chicks suffered. The last couple years have been better and I do think bird numbers are starting to rebuild in some areas.

Predators
Turkeys have been here long enough now that predators have really learned how to hunt turkeys and specialized their methods. We all know that unprecedented numbers of hawks, eagles, coyotes, bobcats, weasels, and even cougars eat turkeys, but what a lot of people do not realize is how ravens impact turkeys. My guides and I have watched countless ravens hunting for hens, they fly through the forest searching for nesting hens. Once a raven locates a hen it calls others and soon you have 2 or 3 ravens swooping at the nesting hen trying to make her move off the nest. As soon as they get her to move then they eat all the eggs. We have watched this many times. If any of you have noticed broken eggs laying around the forest they likely are eggs that were eaten by ravens.

The best thing I have seen to counter this problem is logging. On most of the private lands where I hunt the landowners regularly thin the timber. This in turn allows more under brush to grow which gives turkeys more cover to hide in when they nest.

During the summer when the birds hatch out the hens take the chicks into alfalfa fields, CRP fields, or stay in brushy areas where the tall alfalfa, grass, or brush make it hard for predators to find the chicks and where insects thrive for the birds to feed on.

Hunters can take advantage of this knowledge and concentrate their hunting around farming and logging areas that are growing back with good ground cover.

If you want to help the turkeys please encourage crp, farming, and selective logging in WA. 

[BOWHUNTER45]

I guess your right Bearpaw ...maybe I should have worded that differently ....a lot of birds in the  area I hunt    A lot of factors go into how the population increases or decreases ...you pretty much named them all ...