17828.... was it easy or hard?

how tough was it to punch a tag in NC?

  • I hunted less than 3 days/hunts: didn't punch a tag

    Votes: 3 5.1%
  • I hunted 4-5 days/hunts: didn't punch a tag

    Votes: 5 8.5%
  • I hunted 6 to 10 days/hunts: didn't punch a tag

    Votes: 2 3.4%
  • I hunted 11 to 20 days/hunts: didn't punch a tag

    Votes: 1 1.7%
  • I hunted over 20 days/hunts: didn't punch a tag

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I hunted 3 or less days/hunts: punched one tag

    Votes: 3 5.1%
  • I hunted 4-5 days/hunts: punched one tag

    Votes: 7 11.9%
  • I hunted 6 to 10 days/hunts: punched one tag

    Votes: 7 11.9%
  • I hunted 11-20 days/hunts: punched one tag

    Votes: 7 11.9%
  • I hunted over 20 days/hunts: punched one tag

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I hunted 2 days/hunts: punched two tags

    Votes: 6 10.2%
  • I hunted 3-5 days/hunts: punched two tags

    Votes: 3 5.1%
  • I hunted 6-10 days/hunts: punched two tags

    Votes: 9 15.3%
  • I hunted 11-20 days/hunts: punched two tags

    Votes: 4 6.8%
  • I hunted over 20 days/hunts: punched two tags

    Votes: 2 3.4%

  • Total voters
    59

hawglips

Old Mossy Horns
With the reported turkey harvest so high this year, I thought it might be informative to see how difficult it was to kill a bird or two in North Carolina..
 

wolfman

Old Mossy Horns
I spent 5 "days" in the woods. Most of those days only allowed me about an hour of hunt time.
 

hog&deerhunter

Ten Pointer
I hunted opening day youth with my daughter, opening morning of regular season with my son and opening day afternoon for myself. 3 birds down, 1 per hunt. We can only harvest 3 birds on the farm I hunt per membership, which includes family. I am somewhat certain I could have killed at least 1 more longbeard if that was not the case.

I did the same thing last year but it took me 2 weeks to get my bird.
 
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Randy

Ten Pointer
I killed 2 gobblers while hunting at least portions of 7 days. But, that also included 2 misses, so it should have been less.
 

QBD2

Old Mossy Horns
I had some close calls, but never pulled the trigger in NC. My season overall was one I'd rather not talk about...frustrating to say the least.
 

turkeyfoot

Old Mossy Horns
Our season came in way to early this year in my area of state to many Toms by them self and still running together killed 2 in 2 days 3 ran to call opening morning, called 5 in range in 3 days my 2 kills my brother missed 3 times in rain. Only had 3 days in NC to hunt since most my spring was spent west. Will be same situation next year with season opening 9th that is just to early for my neck of woods Toms should not be that eager its more like hunting the first peak of gobbling than when majority of breeding is ending like supposed to be.
 

sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
^ I had the opposite experience. I ended up using both tags, but spent about 10 days and took it down to the last 2 hours of legal time. Neither bird came to the call the way they are "supposed" to. I heard far fewer birds than normal, and had to basically get in position to ambush them.
 

Lucky Clucker

Old Mossy Horns
I had good luck early, and always hunt all season and take my sons. Could have tagged out first 2 days , after fist week did not get to hunt many good mornings long. Most were evening hunts.
 

Familyman

Twelve Pointer
I had an odd season...had much success, but I failed miserably at the same time. My goal this season was to help my wife get what would be her first adult gobbler. She killed a jake 10+ yrs ago...but never has killed a tom. (She wears the deer out...but turkeys are another story.) Anyway, she was my priority and I took her out 15 times...mostly Saturdays, mornings before work, and a few afternoons/evenings. We hunted hard each and every time. But on those hunts we had the worst luck...very few encounters at all and no shots taken.

Meanwhile...on the days she wasn't with me for whatever reason, I killed one nearly every time I hunted. It was bizarre, really. Though I killed several birds.....and had a lot of great hunts...I failed in my overall goal. Just another unexplainable phenomenon in the world of hunting. My wife had a good attitude about it...I really hope it works out better for her next spring.
 

Buckshot1

Twelve Pointer
killed one in a very tough area, our population seems to be way down from where it used to be. None the less I had a chance to kill a bird every day that I went except one. And that one bird was the only bird killed amongst the all the properties I hunt which encompass approximately 1600 acres, there were 10-15 others that hunted these places at different times as well........so to answer the question, it was a hard season for me.
 
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HuntinCop

Twelve Pointer
Tagged out in the 3-5 trips category and then put my dad on his first ever bird this season as well, which took 2 trips to do. Overall I wish every season was this good for me.
 

wolfman

Old Mossy Horns
I was looking at turkey populations per state. In general, most states harvested over 10% of their entire turkey population during the spring season. Some much larger, like Pennsylvania where 39.5K birds were taken from a population of 225.

Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that NC has the worst turkey hunters that could only manage 17K birds from a booming population of 260K. A mere 6.8%.
 

oldest school

Old Mossy Horns
I was looking at turkey populations per state. In general, most states harvested over 10% of their entire turkey population during the spring season. Some much larger, like Pennsylvania where 39.5K birds were taken from a population of 225.

Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that NC has the worst turkey hunters that could only manage 17K birds from a booming population of 260K. A mere 6.8%.

oh i made a thread about this years ago. some of our guys really got offended. I said that either NC had the worst huntrs or that they were liars (not turning them in).

state said then we had more birds that any other surrounding state and we were killing squat.

the point i was really trying to make was that our population estimate was awful.

which i expect is your point as well. :)

They die these days if they are available. the tents take care of that.
 

Buxndiverdux

Old Mossy Horns
I had a little trouble getting my daughter on a bird. Most of that had to do with her being inexperienced. I hunted one particular bird most of the season. I had him inside 25 yards a few times but he never gave me a good bow shot. I ended up shooting him with my shotgun from a tangle of briars the last week. All in all it was a great season. I watched 8 birds die and 2 of them were first birds, and 3 were kids under 14. My list of hunters was a little longer than most years, but it worked out. Being out of the country for 6 days of season complicated some of it, but we managed.
 

QBD2

Old Mossy Horns
looks like i am winning- only one with 11-20 days with no kill. Only excuse i got is that aside from opening day all of them were very short am or evening hunts.

I put 6-10 tagless, but don't feel bad. I didn't count the days that I only listened to silence and left...
 

blackheel

Twelve Pointer
I hunted only 4 days in NC this year but they were all dark to dark (except one that we quit at 4 due to some ignorant circumstances). Part of the reason I hunted less was I did not get drawn for any 3 day public land hunts this year. I did take youth twice during the youth week and had my nephew connect. So as far as hours hunted, it was well over 40 when I could have harvested a bird!
 

gobblr addict

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
I hunted 6-10 days, tagged out, and passed up a bird the third day...Club took 14 birds, nearly our average....Hunted some tough birds and got beat several times...We have a buttload of birds...population good in Caswell....
 

hawglips

Old Mossy Horns
Looking at the poll, I'd assume the success rate among the respondents is much higher than the entire pool of NC turkey hunters as a whole.

It looks like (if my math is right):
- the average number of turkeys killed per respondent was 1.18
- the average number of days/hunts it took to kill a turkey was 6.43
 
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hawglips

Old Mossy Horns
Well, barring faulty math, it looks like our final numbers are:

total hunters in poll: 58
total turkeys killed: 69
avg killed per hunter: 1.18
days hunted: 444
avg number of days hunted per turkey: 6.43
avg number of days to kill two turkeys: 8.26
% who tagged out: 39.6

Obviously, our poll on here does not reflect the general NC turkey hunting population. If it did, we'd have to reduce the season limit to 1 bird to keep from killing them all...
 

oldest school

Old Mossy Horns
you would have really found out how easy it was for this group had you counted or asked about the youth success as well as the guiding service members provided.
 
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