5 bird limit

[Feedman]

Found this on another site where next year Tennessee may go to a 5 bird spring limit on turkeys.

Bag Limit
123-51

Total of 5 statewide per person. 2 per day "gobblers only" unless otherwise specified. Total statewide and county bag limits include turkeys harvested on Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs).

[vabirddog]

sounds like tenn. is making a play for nonresident $. 5 bird limits and early season dates look good to travellers looking to hunt somewhere. Ask ALa. and So. Carolina.

[ril7572]

Tennessee's 2007 is down, like most other nearby states. I think you will see a small % of hunters fill 4 tags this year. It would suprise me to see the 4 bird limit increased.

Tennessee does offer some great turkey hunting, a long season, liberal limits, and alot of good public areas, Tennessee gets my NR money every year.

[Valley Station]

On Tenn. website, TWRC has proposed same spring limit for 2008 , (4) birds.

[Multidigits]

I've heard about this a while back, the object or at least one of them was to help out the public land pressure situation by upping the limit so that more hunters would try to hunt private lands for the extra bird.

[JDMiller]

Tennessee does offer some great turkey hunting, a long season, liberal limits, and alot of good public areas, Tennessee gets my NR money every year.


I've been toying around with hunting Tennessee since winter. It only takes about 20 minutes from Murray to the Tennessee state line. If I can gain access to a place to deer & turkey hunt close..plus hunting the Tennessee portion of LBL.... I may shell out the cash for license next year ...in addition to Kentucky.

Tennesee allows crossbows throughout archery for deer...liberal limits and might save a little on gas as compared driving a 1 1/2 hours to our farm. I would say I'd be hard pressed to harvest even a couple birds much less 4 or 5 though.... however it does come in earlier which would provide the better opportunity for around here. I may talk myself into it.

[EKY.MTN.HUNTER]

How could this (4) or (5) bird limit expansion possibly impact turkey hunting and turkey populations in TN ?

[TLRanger]

Actually, you can already kill five legal birds in TN. Quota hunts do not count toward the 4 bird limit nor do birds killed at Ft. Campbell which would add two more for a total of seven. At least I think you are allowed two at the Fort but not sure since I don' t hunt there. I don't think the TWRA is going to change anything for the 2008 season.

[Bee]

here is a report of the spring 2007 success rates in Tenn as reported from TWRA:
14,104 Hunters killed 1 turkey
4,549 Hunters Killed 2 turkeys
1687 Hunters Killed 3 turkeys
634 Hunters Killed 4 turkeys
17 Hunters Killed 5 turkeys of which only 4 were killed as WMA Bonus Birds.The other bonus birds were killed on NWR's and other places not regulated by the TWRA.
67.2% of SUCCESSFUL TN Turkey Hunters killed 1 bird
21.7% Killed two turkeys
8% Killed 3 turkeys
3% Killed 4 turkeys
0.1% Killed 5 turkeys

FWIW in additon to the reduced 2007 harvest in Tenn in terms ot total birds in bag, Ky, Virginia and West Va all had reduced total birds killed as well. Most by 10 -20%. Biologically adding a bag limit of an additonal bird is difficult to evaluate in terms of effects on the overall population. What is more likely though is that more jakes will be taken than might other wise be taken in a lower male spring limit. If more jakes are taken then eventually, with more hunters, the chances for a 4-5 yr old trophy bird , or even a 2 yr old long beard, may well be reduced. Tenn has no idea how many turkey hunters are really out there, so some of this is really just a guessing agame as far as effects. Does Kentucky know how many turkey hunters are in the field each spring? (each state know how many big game or turkey permits they sell, but they do not know how many people really participate , and since turkey and deer are the same permits, then it is hard to tell exactly how many turkey hunters you have from that big game licence sales as well). You can sort through short term non-resident sales in Tenn at time of season, but otherwise, for residents, there is no way to tell, so overall hunter success rate is hard to know.

[SKFOOTER]

Tennessee really does need to do like Mississippi did several years ago and make harvesting a jake illegal except for juvenilles. That, I believe, would increase the number of 2 year old gobblers in each successive season.

[Bee]

Based on converstions with the people in charge I doubt Tenn will ever go "no jakes", but could pssibly consider a system where a hunter could only take a certain number of jakes and not fill an entire season limit with jakes; even that is doubtful though. Heard Wisconsin killed over 50,000 birds this spring and 25% of hunters with tags were successful. Very high on both counts.