NYHuner made an interesting post of the Waterfowl
message board about the recent addition of the March Goose Season. We were discussing the season and how the lack of land
to hunt has created an over-abundance of geese. In the post he states, "Knocking on doors was good enough at one time, it
seems that today when you knock you should have your check book with you."
I had another conversation about this same topic with a fellow goose enthusiast who stated the same thing.
This really got me thinking about how the lack of hunting opportunity for the common, everyday New York
Hunter has made the State rely more on one person taking many animals as opposed to more of a
one to one relationship. Just look at the deer numbers for 2007. I think many were surprised to see
them up that high with license sales so low.
Spring turkey hunting is probably one New York hunting activity where lack of land does not seem to produce
an over-abundance of birds. Obviously, you cannot shoot hens in the spring but I have never read anything that
says the gobbler to hen ratio in New York is out of whack or anything.
The State has not extended the season, length of time per day to hunt,
or increased the gobbler take. It is one season that has not seen any changes in many years.
Despite the limited terrain one can hunt on these days, every piece
of land gets turkey hunted and turkey hunters, including the calls they use, have come a long way in
recent years. Birds don't gobble long these days before they get shot.
I am always impressed with the number of people who take gobblers late in the spring turkey season in New York.
I don't seem to find much late season gobbling going on in the brush patches that I have to stomp on. After
the first week things seem to go fairly quiet. Those who own or lease their own property have the benefit of
enjoying late season gobblers. Most of us better get it done the first two weeks and not having a gobbler
by the end of the first week is usually not a good sign.
I also find more people out later in the season than earlier in the season. A constant theme of many turkey hunting
articles will be to hunt later in the season to beat the crowds. I think all of these articles have pushed a lot
of the crowd in to the late season. In recent years, I have seen more people out the last 2 weeks of the season
than the first two weeks. This is also when I seem to have most of my encounters with other hunters and not
with gobblers.
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Rob Taylor, Founder, EmpireHunting.com
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