Moose Droppings

The Magic Number is 10,000 Is this the Year? Originally posted 4/06

May 27, 2006 @ 09:50 pm by Moose

The North Carolina Turkey season opens in a matter of days. Am I ready? heck no but I never seem to have everything I want done. Chances are Saturday morning I’ll be sitting in the blind wondering why I didn’t bring this or why I didn’t check on that. Of course this opener will be a little bit different for me, this will be the first season since I took up turkey hunting that I won’t be in Caswell county. I ‘m going to be in the mountains helping and filming a new hunter getting her first bird.
A question I seem to get asked a lot is how’s the upcoming season look? Well a better person then me to ask is Mike Seamster [quote] “I’m pretty sure because we had a real good hatch (in 2004). We had a heavy harvest of jakes last year, but there should be plenty of those birds in the woods this spring, and they’ll all be 2-year-old gobblers, which are the easiest ones to kill.” [/quote]
The comeback of the turkey in North Carolina is due in no small part to people like Mike Seamster and other folks at the State Wildlife. [quote]From a low-water mark in 1970 when the statewide flock had dwindled to around 2,000 birds, North Carolina now has approximately 130,000 turkeys picking their way through woods and fields. The commission released almost 1,000 turkeys on restoration areas through the 1980s, and from 1990 through 2005, it stocked more than 4,000 birds. Regions where birds were relocated had closed seasons for a period of years while the birds acclimated themselves to their new surroundings, and when the population reached a suitable level, spring hunting was allowed.
[/quote] All 100 counties in the state are now open so it means more opportunities and less drive time. Will this be the year the harvest breaks 10,000? All indications are it will happen this year. [quote] Seamster’s hopes for a 10,000-bird harvest are based on two things: a very successful hatch in the spring of 2004 and the growth and expansion of turkey populations in counties that have not had open seasons for very long.
[/quote]I think the popularity of the sport is growing and it seems to me that we have a lot of new hunters hitting the woods this spring. The other unknown commodity in this mix is the weather and the impact it will have. [quote] “But providing we have good weather on our traditional high-harvest days (Saturdays), we’ll have an abundance of 2-year-old birds in the woods. They’re mature, but they’re the most vocal of all your gobblers, and they’re the easiest to kill.
“Having so many 2-year-old birds out there creates plenty of competition. You’ve got several birds out there gobbling, and they all want to get to that hen first. That sets us up for a good spring — if the weather cooperates.”
Last season, the 10,000-mark almost fell, especially if you add in the winter harvest. Hunters took 151 birds during the six-day either-sex season in January, then reported taking 9,824 birds during the month-long spring gobbler season, which opens this year on April 8 and runs through May 6.
[/quote] I have a few days left to get ready and thank goodness for the longer days because after work I got to go out to the farm and sight my gun in for Saturday.

http://www.ncgameandfish.com/hunting/turkey-hunting/NC_0306_02/