We need a fall season in zone 10

[six_gunz]

I just read this little article in American Hunter magazine about the turkey here in Massachusetts being overpopulated. I don't get the Boston Globe but I guess they ran an article as well back in October, so I did a search and here it is http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/10/23/turkeys_take_to_cities_towns/
I can attest myself that I see turkey everywhere here on a daily basis, where I live we only have a spring season and we really need a fall season. The population here is getting huge and could get out of control. Not many hunters around here, this is a big fishing community.

[S.B.]

When I hunted deer near Lorie Mo. the residents were afraid to go to town after dark for the turkeys all over the roads?
six_gunz, your brother J. and I are still planning to come out there (spring 2008) and help you out, with this problem, God willing and the creek don't rise?

[six_gunz]

It's kinda funny, but not I guess how some people are so afraid of turkeys. I myself am not afraid, I wouldn't want to get spurred though. I have turkeys coming up to my back door and a few times my wife has come home and resorted to staying in her car until they left because she is scared of them.

[buck460XVR]

When I hunted deer near Lorie Mo. the residents were afraid to go to town after dark for the turkeys all over the roads?

I wonder if anyone really ever saw a WILD turkey in the road after dark? I know I never have, and I drive thru areas of heavy Turkey populations nightly. Only turkey's  I've ever seen on the ground after dark were nesting hens. Around here, a turkey on the ground after dark is generally coyote bait.

.......as far as fall seasons are concerned, most healthy turkey populations do better when exposed to a fall season. Like antlerless hunts for deer, it keeps the population in check, while keeping the male/female ratio closer to what's natural. Fall hunting altho legal is not real popular around  my area, generally cause most folks don't think you can call in a shoot a tom.....even tho they are mistaken, they can continue to think that as far as I'm concerned. Several of my friends that hunt large tracts of private land complain all spring season about the toms being henned up. When I suggest they hunt in the fall to eliminate some of the hens(and their competition) they say it's too easy and not enough of a challenge to shoot hens......shows they ain't tried it yet.

[S.B.]

buck460XVR, you don't list where you're from? I just stated what I've witnessed. Have you ever been to the midwest during Nov.?

[buck460XVR]

Have you ever been to the midwest during Nov.?

yep............for 54 years. And there's been Turkeys around here for all of 'em. Yet to see a WILD turkey in the road at NIGHT, and yet to know anybody or hear of anybody hittin' one with a vehicle at night(altho they get nailed around here regularly during daylight hours) I ain't sayin' it can't happen, just I'm thinkin' that the incidence would be mighty slim. IMHO, hittin an owl or woodcock would be much more of a threat at night than Wild Turkeys. Now iffin a flock of Turkeys got scared off their roost during darkness, I can see where they would tend to go to an open area such as a road till it got light enough for them to see, it's just the odds of that happening regularly enough to scare folk from driving to town seem a bit farfetched.  Again, this is just my opinion formed from my own experience and knowledge of Wild Turkeys.

This topic reminds me of the time I was going nightfishing for bass. As I got to the reservoir I drove into a thick blanket of fog just as the road wound between two bodies of water. I slowed down to a crawl as I could only see the double yellow line directly in front of me. All of a sudden it sounded like I was being bombed with bowling balls as a flock of Canadians flushed from my approach. Whether they were on the water or the road I'll never know. Blinded by the fog and my headlights they continued to fly into my truck for quite a while even tho I had come to a complete stop. The warden that came when I called said it was the damndest thing he had ever seen. There were 6 geese that we found committed suicide and $900 damage to my truck.

[S.B.]

Yes, I guess I should of said twilight?

[six_gunz]

I've never seen one at night myself. Mostly in the early morning hours. I don't miss that fog one bit. I lived in central ILL. down in a valley and I remember driving to work in the mornings with fog like that (and it seemed to be quite a lot of mornings)....so thick you could barely see the front of the hood of your car/truck.