What are everyone else's thoughts on how late they keep pushing the Turkey seasons? This year 1st Season starts April 21st and 6th season ends in June. I don't know about you but I'd rather sit in the cold in early April than sweat my butt off and pick woodticks in late May and June. Plus some of the best hunting is early. Your thoughts.....
Wisconsin Hunting Reports/Discussion
2021 Turkey Hunt/Seasons
Displaying 16 to 23 of 23 posts
Just remember this the DNR is in the business of selling tags. Money talks. There is a push to get rid of the 6 periods and just let people go at them. There are more tags out there than birds. Thank goodness a lot of people do not want to hunt the late seasons. They think more people are going to hunt more in the late season because it is warm. Personally I will not hunt the late seasons. I hunt highly pressured area, and the birds have heard every call out there. Ambush is about the only way that I have success in the late seasons. Dangerous to do on public, really have to be aware of your surroundings and with the last summer panic, there are a ton of people hiking the public hunting grounds this time of year.
As for hunting warm weather birds bring a bag of ice and get it jammed into the bird as soon as possible the last time that I did get a bird in late season it was 70 degrees at 6 am and by the time I got home the bird started to spoil. That bird did not taste good. And that is the reason I shoot birds. I will not hunt after the 15th of May. Just to warm in the southern part of the state. I was brought up to use what you take. And to shoot a bird and donate it to the food pantry is thrill killing to me, no different than a poacher shooting birds and letting them lay. My personal opinion.
I am always hunting the first two seasons. (preference point) If I do not draw a tag I do not buy the extra tags that are available, personal preference, as many have said it is not enjoyable hunting in the burning needles and mosquitos. Enjoy the chance to hunt, and hunt your way.
No matter where the season starts it will always swing up and down the calendar by about a week and the weather will be wet or snowy or hot and dry we have no control over that. However in general by moving the season back to starting the first season prior to April 15 there will be more hunting opportunity early that are more desirable to more hunters with less interference. Also by starting earlier it allows turkey hunting in state parks 3 weeks instead of 2.
For those that want to get away from hunting in the snow the last 3 time periods even with an early start can be pretty safe that snow season will be past.
Please realize 2021 is the latest opener possible, and the only way opening of fishing lands on the second weekend of turkey season. In 2021, April 1st lands on a Thursday which pushes the opener all the way to April 21st. In 2026, the 1st lands on a Wednesday which pulls back the opener to April 15th. This is similar to how the dates land when people complain about the deer rifle hunt the year before....when it happened to land on the latest possible Saturday and well after the rut. In this part of the state, many years I have dealt with thigh-high snow on the opener anyway....
Turkey hunting is a joke. About eight years running now I request season 3 or 4 as my first and second choice. This year I requested 2 or 3 cause of the way the season falls. And you know what, I've drawn season 5 or 6 all eight years running, and all those years I've then never bought my tag or gone. I'm too busy fishing then. Didn't think I was being too greedy, but apparently tags are hard to come by if you want to hunt the front half the spring.
This BS of starting the season later started about 4 seasons ago and was brought about by a citizen petition at the Conservation Congress went through the process and was passed into law so that the youth season would start later and not be as likely to encounter a snowy cold weekend.
Over the last few years it has been brought back to the Conservation Congress and was passed statewide last year. It should have been on the DNR side of the questions this spring and if passed the law changed back to Starting the first season on the Wednesday prior to April 15.
Unfortunately the biologist in charge of turkey management did her Masters study on a property in the Carolina's that showed hunter interference with success in breeding.
I counter that with a much larger study in turkey population success with the state of Wisconsin starting the season earlier for over 25 years and having one of the greatest success stories in the population of a state that was thought to be too cold and have too much snow in the northern half of the state to sustain turkeys.
The late start and late end needs to be changed in my opinion.
The late end also leads to more problems in property use as there are more hikers, mushroom pickers and other use in the woods that could potentially lead to an accident.
Displaying 16 to 23 of 23 posts
