NY Dec Turkey king

[Trial153]

Let’s You woke up to be NY DEC  Turkey hunting king. You get to make the rules and laws going forward. What changes are you making? 

Here are mine…

~ State wide Spring season  April 20 to may 20th. 

~One spring gobbler limit state wide

~ State wide fall season oct 1st to oct 31 first, one bird state wide. 

[G-man]

4 minutes ago, Trial153 said:

Let’s You woke up to be NY DEC  Turkey hunting king. You get to make the rules and laws going forward. What changes are you making? 

Here are mine…

~ State wide Spring season  April 20 to may 20th. 

~One spring gobbler limit state wide

~ State wide fall season oct 1st to oct 31 first, one bird state wide. 

Like this but would still  do season may 1st to 15th  then 2nd bird 15th to 30th.

Definitely oct 1 to 30 for fall turkey. 1 bird  limit

Seperate tag purchase for spring and fall. So can get closer to actual number  of fall turkey hunter..

[blackbeltbill]

1 hour ago, Trial153 said:

Let’s You woke up to be NY DEC  Turkey hunting king. You get to make the rules and laws going forward. What changes are you making? 

Here are mine…

~ State wide Spring season  April 20 to may 20th. 

~One spring gobbler limit state wide

~ State wide fall season oct 1st to oct 31 first, one bird state wide. 

Trial- my Thumbs down is for just 1 Spring Bird. That is not needed...

 Perhaps you did not know the Following. -- In 2015/DEC Changed the Fall Turkey Format in " 3 different  ways" to increase Wild Turkey Populations especially  in huge Zones of 3 +4.

  And increase the Population/ especially  the Hens- this was successful.  10 years later in 2024- almost too many Hens from my continual Field observations. 

1. 2015 Fall Turkey Season moved over 3 weeks back from October 1st to October  19th this year.

2 Kill Take slashed from 2 Turkeys to 1 Bird.

3 . Season Length Slashed from 6 weeks to 2 weeks!

  Trial- you can see the DEC has already 10 years back made all changes needed to increase the Turkey Population  in Huge zones of 3 and 4.

[blackbeltbill]

  My Changes would be as follows.

1. Move the Fall Turkey Opening Date in Huge Zones of 3 and 4 to October 1st. 

Keep the Fall Turkey Season at just 2 Weeks and 1 Fall Turkey.

  Open the NY Spring Season on the last Saturday in April to May 28th.

  Keep the Season Limit at 2 as always.

 May 14th to May 28th - Turkey Hunters should be able to hunt to Sunset. 

 

[Trial153]

7 minutes ago, blackbeltbill said:

Trial- my Thumbs down is for just 1 Spring Bird. That is not needed...

 Perhaps you did not know the Following. -- In 2015/DEC Changed the Fall Turkey Format in " 3 different  ways" to increase Wild Turkey Populations especially  in huge Zones of 3 +4.

  And increase the Population/ especially  the Hens- this was successful.  10 years later in 2024- almost too many Hens from my continual Field observations. 

1. 2015 Fall Turkey Season moved over 3 weeks back from October 1st to October  19th this year.

2 Kill Take slashed from 2 Turkeys to 1 Bird.

3 . Season Length Slashed from 6 weeks to 2 weeks!

  Trial- you can see the DEC has already 10 years back made all changes needed to increase the Turkey Population  in Huge zones of 3 and 4.

Not my intention to debate.  It was as question. 🙋🏻‍♂️ 

I asked what if anything would you do or change. !!? I stated what i would do.  I am in what you would do! 

 

The fall season is too short in my opinion. The spring season starts too late.  And one Gobbler limit makes sense to me.  Especially since the fall tag is either sex.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Fab]

Bill. Lots of hens in some areas.  Almost none in other areas.   I’d like to see the fall season go away completely 

[blackbeltbill]

 

 

5 minutes ago, Trial153 said:

Not my intention to debate.  It was as question. 🙋🏻‍♂️ 

I asked what if anything would you do or change. !!? I stated what i would do.  I am in what you would do! 

 

The fall season is too short in my opinion. The spring season starts too late.  And one Gobbler limit makes sense to me.  Especially since the fall tag is either sex.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK- What you need to do next May is voluntarily stop after killing 1 Gobbler.  

  April 20th is too early to open. The Gobblers have to breed the Hens. I think  the last Saturday  in April would be perfect.

  Fall Season if started on October 1st in Huge Zones of 3 and 4 should stay at 2 weeks.

  I still have the DEC Paperwork somewhere  going back to 1986. Many Western NY County's had Fall Kill " Doubling " the Spring Kill. And Western NY has always been a 1/ Fall Turkey area.

 A healthy  debate is good - it is how we learn and grow.

[blackbeltbill]

15 minutes ago, Fab said:

Bill. Lots of hens in some areas.  Almost none in other areas.   I’d like to see the fall season go away completely 

Not many Fall Turkey Hunters. Mostly Bow Deer Hunters up in their Stands in NY. 

 List your County that has very few Hens. 

 Orange / Rockland County's- Mega Hens. Almost too many.

[Fab]

Sullivan Ulster 

 

This past spring I knew of only 2 hens in about a doZ areas.  I have yet to see a poukt yet this summer 

 

 2023 spring  I knew if 5 diff hens. I only saw poults once.  ( 2)    That was late July.   Didn’t see another hen till late sept 

 

I started hunting in spring 84.  Pops in fall 79.  in the Late 80s.  Early 90s.  We had a good number of birds in all spots.    Now.  It’s Like a needle in a hay stack 

it’s ashame how few birds are around now   

 

 

 

[Versatile Hunter]

I’d funnel more funding towards the young forest initiative and resume cutting inside the Catskills park. Of course, this would require careful management with forestry experts and wildlife biologists to ensure a proper eye towards the future. Habitat, habitat, habitat. 
 

I like the idea of an earlier start to the spring season but I don’t actually know the biology about how this would affect nesting success rates. 

[mowin]

Get rid of tags, and report from the field. 

Otherwise, leave it alone. 

[blackbeltbill]

28 minutes ago, Fab said:

Sullivan Ulster 

 

This past spring I knew of only 2 hens in about a doZ areas.  I have yet to see a poukt yet this summer 

 

 2023 spring  I knew if 5 diff hens. I only saw poults once.  ( 2)    That was late July.   Didn’t see another hen till late sept 

 

I started hunting in spring 84.  Pops in fall 79.  in the Late 80s.  Early 90s.  We had a good number of birds in all spots.    Now.  It’s Like a needle in a hay stack 

it’s ashame how few birds are around now   

 

 

 

Each State has empty pocket areas. South New Jersey has a tremendous  Turkey population/ Northern NJ- Just the opposite. 

[cas]

Test a short start in April. Maybe only for a weekend.  Then closed it till May 1 through... I dunno, the 25th or so, whenever the weekends fall out. 

As a hunter, and/or if the goal is to increase the take,  move fall season to Mid September.  Overlapping of turkey and bow season isn't great for a lot of people.  I have to choose one or the other. If they were more spread out I could do both. 

Short of deer/bear/birds of prey, make it legal to take any game that comes in to your calls. 

Edited September 8 by cas

[Fab]

I called in a fisher one spring.  
 

Nasty and not afraid 

[Mike103]

Fall turkey hunting closed. Or at least no hens. 

Spring all of May, two bird limit, one the first two weeks and the one the last two weeks. 
 
Third and last weekend in April for the kids. 
 

All shot restrictions eliminated. 
 

Coyote season eliminated.