Seems to be several turkey hunters on here that hunt Georgia, be they residents or nonresidents. Looks like Georgia turkey hunting regulations are making some major changes next year. I’m curious about your thoughts on these changes.
-Reducing the statewide limit to 2 birds
-Reduce the daily limit to 1 bird per day
-Open season on the Saturday following March 27th (Previously opened on the Saturday following March 19th) Next year season will open April 2nd on private land.

Public land hunters will be effected the most.
-Season will not open on public land until 2 weeks later (April 16th)
-Public land hunters will be limited to taking 1 bird from any one public WMA

Apparent theories are that timing of the season and harvest are having an effect on turkey populations.

Your opinions GA turkey hunters???????

It seems the new fad is to move the seasons back. WY did that this year they had some data to support that change for the improvements to the breeding season impact on the flocks. I have found the early openers are a tougher hunt some years too.

They have a writeup on their website if your interested in the study.

I believe Alabama is also planning to delay the season opener next year also.

Im a Georgia public land hunter. Im good with all of the proposed changes, but I am not a fan of the one bird per day. Im interested to see what the pushing back of the season will do on public land. Right now it seems if you hunt opening day in my local roaded up WMAs (which are quota only) you are likely to hear birds gobble on the roost, fly down with hens, and shutup. Typical early season henned up birds. Currently, those birds get an education quick and become harder to kill later on when the time starts getting right. I know with a quota of 80 people hunting the first week there has been 6 birds killed so far this year on the one closest to me. If the season is pushed back a couple weeks when the gobblers are more ready to play the game itll be interesting to see if harvest numbers go up the first week or two of season.

Gives them cottonmouths warmer weather lol

I’ve never hunted public land in Georgia. I have no doubt that it is similar to public land in any Southeastern state and hunting pressure is very high. I have no doubt that gobbler mortality is very high on WMA’s in Georgia. I can see where the harvest restrictions on WMA’s could possibly help retain some gobblers and spread out harvest.

This is my observation of hunting private land in extreme South Georgia for the last 12 years:
-Hunting pressure is very light for the tremendous amount of turkey habitat in that part of the state.
-The turkey population in that area is certainly not high, but there is more than enough birds to have quality hunting, and has been very stable for the years that I have been hunting there. Without a doubt the population was much higher in the years prior to when I started hunting there.
-In this part of the state, reducing the limit from three to two will have almost no impact on the population because of the limited hunting pressure IMO.
-It’s a LONG way from North Georgia to South Georgia. Perfectly timing the season is impossible from one end of the state to the other. The 3rd week of March opener time is about perfect in extreme South Georgia. Breeding is going on, birds are scattered from winter flocks, hens are laying eggs and/or setting on nests. I have no doubt the later opener will benefit parts of the state to the North.