In Georgia you can kill Jakes, can't kill hens, ever even if they sport a beard. No fall season. It can make for some tough huntin, but i believe it is best. I personally dont shoot jakes, just alot more fun to kill em as 2 year olds, but lots do "if he's gonna gobble like a 2 year old, strutt like a 2 year old, then he can die like a two year old" as the saying goes.
As far as hens, i dont know any state that allows killin em in the spring, it's the future, and with the high nest predation, (fire ants, possums, skunks, coons, yotes etc.) and probally more important rain and cool weather, the reproduction can vary dramatically from year to year. We need all the nesting birds you can get. I dont have numbers to support this but does probally have a much higher percentage of reproductive success. Plus the idea of shooting does was first a herd management tool to decrease the herd, now it's also used to increase the quality here in ga of the Herd (bigger bucks). With turkeys you generally dont have the same management goals, they generally are not causing millions of dollars in damage in the form of vehicle collisions and farm/crop damage, nor are they coming up in urban settings and eating mammas flowers. There may be some hassles with them but not near the problem that whitetails and humans have.
An arguement in favor of fall kills is a recent study that suggest turkeys reproduce at high levels until the region reaches capacity, with turkeys migrating to fill gaps, a higher kill, means the level maintains at under capacity, fooling the turkeys into higher reproduction rates, wich equals higher numbers of polts and therefor huntable turkeys in following years. On the other hand once capacity is reached the reproduction rates decrease and therefore the regions population experiences a slight decrease until it final levels off, (which they use to explain the recent reduction in ga turkey pop). So the idea is to keep the flock at just below capacity by means of spring and fall hunting kills, this fools the turkey into higher reproduction and has a flock above capacity for the hunting seasons. This study has not been accepted across the board yet, but will be interesting how it turns out.
Jakes actually in my experience are harder to kill than a 2 year old, but when they do come they often come in tandem, and dont really put on the show the older boys do. You can shoot 3 a season in ga and all in one shot if you want, which is often possible especially if your toting a shotgun, they often will jump on downed birds even after a blast from a gun. A jake with a stick and string is for sure an accomplishment. I just like to see em as 2 year olds put on a show.
Topic: "Wrong" to kill hens or jakes? (Read 1588 times)
