Late turkey season and the youth weekend

[Willie]

The Indiana turkey season comes in a little later this year - April 27th. No problem as the gobblers will still be searching for receptive hens.


The BIG problem is that throws the Youth Turkey Hunt weekend on Easter weekend.

OUCH!!

 

[selinoid44]

Why did they move it back? Why is it that people think they have to mess with what works? If it aint broke, dont fix it!

 

[RelicHound]

They didn't move it. It always falls on the last Wednesday in April....I think.

 

[Willie]

It cycles like the deer season opener does. Not sure what the criteria is used though. I'll ask Steve Backs.

The youth weekend is something recently new and this is the first time it got caught on Eatser weekend.

Past seasons..

2000 4/26-5/14
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2001 4/25-5/13
2002 4/24-5/12
2003 4/23-5/11
2004 4/21-5/9
2005 4/27-5/15
2006 4/26-5/14
2007 4/25-5/13
2008 4/23-5/11
2009 4/22-5/10
2010 4/21-5/9
2011 4/27 - 5/15


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[selinoid44]

I wish it was April! I'm ready to go bust a turkey!

 

[wildhare]

They need to allow 2 birds in the spring. They are over running alot of ground. JMO I would love to see a 2 bird but some will argue the other way.

 

[RelicHound]

They need to allow 2 birds in the spring. They are over running alot of ground. JMO I would love to see a 2 bird but some will argue the other way.

I wouldnt be totally against it in most counties but I think the seasons we have now are fine{I do wish they would come in a week or two earlier} but the bag limits are ok for now IMHO.
we do have alot of hens so I think an extended firearms season in the fall for hens only would be beneficial. killing hens in the spring would do more harm then good on the population.

 

[scosgrove]

What are the best counties for Turkey? Never been but really want to go sometime...

 

[RelicHound]

What are the best counties for Turkey? Never been but really want to go sometime...

All of the southern counties suck! everything south of I64 is completely void of turkeys.

 

[Wheezy50]

What are the best counties for Turkey? Never been but really want to go sometime...

The southern half of the state holds a lot of birds, seems like the closer you move North towards indy they get fewer and farther between. Cant speak for the Northern part of the state, never hunted up there. I know their are some birds around Atterbury, Johnson county. They're starting to spread/populate more areas in central IN. I've got a couple places in Morgan Co. with huntable numbers of birds.

Some counties i've had success in........Vanderburgh, Warrick, Orange,Martin, Jefferson, Putnam, and Morgan.

 

[Willie]

The southern half of the state holds a lot of birds, seems like the closer you move North towards indy they get fewer and farther between. Cant speak for the Northern part of the state, never hunted up there. I know their are some birds around Atterbury, Johnson county. They're starting to spread/populate more areas in central IN. I've got a couple places in Morgan Co. with huntable numbers of birds.

Some counties i've had success in........Vanderburgh, Warrick, Orange,Martin, Jefferson, Putnam, and Morgan.

There are a LOT of turkeys in Indy..

 

[REK466]

turkeys

Up north, I live near South Bend, there are lots of turkeys up here, I have been to car vs. turkey carshes in the recent past. Had 3 small birds and mother hen in my 1 acre back yard recently. I have never hunted but may take my 10 year old out this year....

 

[Willie]

Email back from Steve backs -

In answer to your question regarding how the spring turkey season dates are set, I’ll give you the short answer. Season dates for turkey hunting are set to assure that the majority of hens, on average, have already bred and are beginning to incubate their eggs. This timing reduces accidental hen shootings during the hunting season and generally intercepts the second peak of gobbling activity when gobblers are vulnerable due to their breeding behavior. The proportion of hens lost to accidental shootings can increase significantly if spring hunting commences prior to the general onset of incubation. The spring season dates for wild turkey hunting were standardized over a decade ago as, “... from the first Wednesday after April 20 and continuing for an additional eighteen (18) consecutive days.” The range of opening dates is from April 21 to 27 and easily determined for any year by consulting a calendar. The standardize season dates were developed to capture the relatively consistent chronology of the wild turkey breeding cycle and, in part, as another convenience to our hunting publics, especially those hunters who need to request their leave time 6-12 months prior to taking it.

I have attached a couple articles related to the spring season date issue. There is a growing interest in recent years among turkey hunters to progressively have earlier and earlier spring season dates which is totally contradictory to the science-based recommendations of recent hen mortality and hen incubation/nesting studies. The recent, in some cases dramatic, declines in southeastern US turkey populations is a wake-up call that the turkey resource does not come from an endless well and that more constraints in meeting hunter demands will be limited by the production capacity of the resource.

As far as the youth season colliding with the Easter weekend, the Director indicated there will be no change with this year’s dates and has addressed this in communications with Mr. Steve Griffey of the Freedom Hunt organization. While we can all certainly sympathize with concerns regarding the participation of both the youth and the volunteers over Easter weekend, we will not be able to change the youth season dates for this spring. The intersection of the youth weekend with the Easter weekend will not be an issue again until 2025. Easter Sunday ranges from March 23rd to April 25th, so there will be the potential conflicts no matter what standardize date schedule is used for setting the spring turkey season as well as the youth season.

 

[HICKMAN]

I wish it was April! I'm ready to go bust a turkey!

amen, the boy and I saw around 20 birds on the farm the other day.

We've never hunted turkey before, but we're gonna learn and try this year