MN Turkey Hunting Hours Extended Until SUNSET!!!

[Hotspotter]

You heard it here first folks......or maybe in last week's Outdoor News .

With the new Omnibus Game and Fish Bill for 2006 came an extension in the turkey hunting hours until sunset for spring 2007.

I'm thrilled about this. No longer will I feel bad for taking a snooze mid-afternoon. We'll be just like most of the western states that already allow this.

Those last few hours before dark when birds are moving towards the roost can be productive, so I'm excited to be out there during another "peak" time.

It's my hope that because hunters will be out in the woods later, that they won't kill birds out of the roost tree that have already flown up. This temptation might present itself, especially if you set up near traditional roost locations.

I think this will be a good thing for MN turkey hunting as a whole though, so I'm all for it. With increased pressure, it might even lead to better success rates. We'll have to see!

Joel

[LABS4ME]

I gotta disagree Joel... for the most part I'm all for expanding the ability to hunt and fish, but I think that all to often the temptation to "get your bird" will lead to guys shooting off the roost or right on top of traditional roosting areas. It seems the pressure guys put on themselves to bag a bird is almost more so than bagging a deer. I guess I like to give the birds a little time off each day so as to be able to move around, feed, roost and just plain ol' be a turkey without having more pressure thrown upon them. I'd even bet this limits more land from us garnering permission to hunt.

My feeling is that each year the birds in Minnesota see more pressure than the year before just through increased permits and less habitat and less available lands on which to hunt. I'd be more for this if we were like WI and had all Wed. - Sun. permit time frames so as to take the pressure off of them a couple days a week to again "let them be turkeys". Because of bigger tracts of land out west, more turkeys tend to be "nomadic" in the sense they do not nessacarily roost in the same tree/area each night. The few parcels of land I am able to hunt in MN (which I feel is typical of most of the turkey parcels), tend to have the birds roosting in the same area or even the same tree on most evenings. I'd bet given the opportunity, a lot of guys will set up shop and whack 'em off the roost or on the way to their roost, giving them lees time to find another suitable roost site, this may even cause a few more to be lost to predation.(?) I really think this is going to screw up guys with later permit times with un-patternable birds. You can even now regularily see Tom's out feeding in fields after 5:00, because they have patterened around the current closing time, but now they will be chased around even through the evening hours. Less feeding time/ less out in the open/ less opportunity to pattern birds on various parcels. Hopefully I'm proven wrong, but my gut has me thinking this way.

I understand guys wanting to make the most of their hunting opportunities, but I think sometimes we shoot ourselves in the foot wanting more and more. A good case in point is with our early closing on ducks in the beginning of the season, guys want to be able to shoot 'em up until sunset, but look at the hunting clubs in Arkansas, most close up their shooting hours at 12:00 to give the birds a break and keep them around, and it works. We look for "our" short term gains and do not look at the big picture or the guys hunting that area after you. Sometimes I may be a little over conservative when it comes to fish and game, but I put less on the take and more in the experience with each and every passing season...

Good Luck!

Ken

[Borch]

I have mixed feelings about it. But to be honest I'm more in favor of it myself.

I understand Ken's concerns and to a point I can't disagree with them. However, there are laws in place to deal with the behaviors described. If guys will break the law they'll do it no matter what the shooting time is.

I've hunted in a few states where sunset is the closing time. To be honest 99.9% of hunters are done before dinner and don't believe you can kill a bird later in the day. So it will increase pressure. But not as much as a person would think. In fact most are not taking advantage of the time which is now allowed for hunting. Many are out of the woods by 9 am and don't return until the next day.

If anything I see the birds roosting later. As it is now most of the birds I see roost do it well after sunset. Some of the western birds I've hunted roost after dark, sometimes well after dark. When it comes to roosted birds being shot why is it more of a concern in the evening? Mornings are a concern as well as far as I'm concerned.

With such a short season it's nice having more time. Especially for those who are unable to take a lot of time off during those 5-7 days. I generally hunt those later seasons. Much of my hunting is done on public land. I'm not terribly concerned about the time being pushed back myself. Most people are ethical in the way they hunt but really don't put in that much effort. Us turkey nuts will be out there as much as possible though.

[Hotspotter]

Ken:

Very good points; many of which I had not even considered. Especially the pairing of 5-day seasons with the later close. While it does increase opportunity, it will likely increase pressure. And you're right, this isn't like Montana. Every year, permission is harder to come by. Every year, I see more trucks parked in field-approaches. Every year, I see more signs of people hunting turkeys across the countryside. I must admit, I kind of liked "having the woods to myself," for all those years.

Like Borch, I have mixed feelings, and your post made me rethink alot of the thoughts I'd had on it up to this point. However, I think I too am more for it than against. Shooting birds off of the roost in the morning is also a problem. But for anybody who has tried to get close to a roost tree to call a bird in, you know that getting within 100 yds is difficult, let alone shotgun range.

People might hunt exclusively before/after work, rather than taking off more days during the week. Hard to say.

As Ken mentioned, I think my concerns have more to do behaviorally than biologically. I'm more concerned about how hard these things will be to kill, than actually doing anything to substantially effect their success in the state of Minnesota.

I guess it remains to be seen whether it will be a good thing or not. I hope it will be.

As for "getting-your-bird," yep.....it's the primary undesireable part of the sport for me. I hate the big-buck mentality when it gets dragged across the whitetail/turkey boundary, and I really dislike this notion of bagging a bird every year to be a good turkey hunter. It's what we're out there for, to ultimately hunt and kill a turkey, but it shouldn't be the only thing we're out there for. And not-taking a turkey shouldn't make or break our hunts. It's something that I'll reluctantly admit to having a problem with from time to time. Something that I need to check and take a step back from everytime frustration gets the better of me.

I'll steal a quote from fishing and hope it applies here:

Quote:

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"Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing it is not fish they are after." --Henry David Thoreau

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Joel