# Northern and Central Region



## hawglips (Aug 23, 2013)

Looks like the Division regrets having put turkeys in the northern half of the state with the unlimited tag, either-sex, rifle shooting eradication program.


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## toasty (May 15, 2008)

hawglips said:


> Looks like the Division regrets having put turkeys in the northern half of the state with the unlimited tag, either-sex, rifle shooting eradication program.


How do you know it is unlimited?


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## sheepassassin (Mar 23, 2018)

Where is it posted they are unlimited this year?


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## ns450f (Aug 28, 2018)

I think it is a great plan. The turkeys are everywhere here in southern utah and it is hard to harvest them in the spring without access to private property and that is harder to get than the le Turkey permit. I had my le spring Turkey tag last year and I wasn't able to connect and neither were the other 5 guys I knew with the tag. They need to do something to knock the populations down. I am planning on grabbing a tag today for the fall hunt and the only reason I am doing so is because I will be able to use a rim fire cartridge.


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## sheepassassin (Mar 23, 2018)

ns450f said:


> I think it is a great plan. The turkeys are everywhere here in southern utah and it is hard to harvest them in the spring without access to private property and that is harder to get than the le Turkey permit. I had my le spring Turkey tag last year and I wasn't able to connect and neither were the other 5 guys I knew with the tag. They need to do something to knock the populations down. I am planning on grabbing a tag today for the fall hunt and the only reason I am doing so is because I will be able to use a rim fire cartridge.


You do understand the majority of the turkey hunt areas in sourthern Utah are for private land, right?


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## CPAjeff (Dec 20, 2014)

hawglips said:


> Looks like the Division regrets having put turkeys in the northern half of the state with the unlimited tag, either-sex, rifle shooting eradication program.


I'm wondering if they regret trading a lot of our moose to other states for turkeys. . .

I haven't seen unlimited moose tags . . . ever.


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## toasty (May 15, 2008)

It does indeed look like they are unlimited. I hunted central fall last year and it was a tough hunt, the birds were either on public or private land that couldn't be hunted. Lots of birds in city limits as well. I think it could hurt populations in some areas, but most will not be affected much. Oh how I wish they would give out 2 spring gobbler permits.


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## ns450f (Aug 28, 2018)

sheepassassin said:


> ns450f said:
> 
> 
> > I think it is a great plan. The turkeys are everywhere here in southern utah and it is hard to harvest them in the spring without access to private property and that is harder to get than the le Turkey permit. I had my le spring Turkey tag last year and I wasn't able to connect and neither were the other 5 guys I knew with the tag. They need to do something to knock the populations down. I am planning on grabbing a tag today for the fall hunt and the only reason I am doing so is because I will be able to use a rim fire cartridge.
> ...


Yeah, I was looking at the boundaries a few days ago. There is some public land mixed into the enterprise area but that is mainly private, same thing with the new harmony area. It looks like page ranch is huntable but that is entirely private. There is a fairly big area by parowan that is a mix of public and private also. I am mainly interested in hunting the big area west of 89 and north of mt. Carmel junction. There is a lot of private but also a lot of public land in that section. I also have seen a ton of turkeys around that ash creek reservoir at the top of the black ridge and it looks like it is included in the new harmony area boundary. Being able to use my .22 mag should really make hunting these small areas of public easier.


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## sheepassassin (Mar 23, 2018)

This state can grow 4 things very well. Carp, turkeys, elk and phragmites. And they try to exterminate every single thing they produce well, every year! I bought 3 central fall tags, and I’ll buy my wife up to 3 if she decides she wants to go that much. It’s sad that Utah has decided the turkeys need to go now. A lot of work has gone into getting good numbers of birds in this state, and now they decide to hammer them back into extinction. It’s sad from a sportsman’s point of view to see what we traded to get birds for transplants, only to kill them 10 years down the road. To me, moose are way more valuable than turkeys were. Apparently neither is very valued by our wildlife managers. This year I saw a significant decrease in birds during the spring hunt. Winter I’m sure played a part in that, but I know the fall hunt also did. Most of the birds I hunted in a certain area wintered on property that hates turkeys and would allow almost anyone who asked for permission, to come shoot the turkeys off the plowed roads, when they didn’t have anywhere else to go in the deep snow. I love spring time turkey hunting, it’s been a lot of fun while it was good. But I’m doubting now that I’ll continue to apply for a LE or buy a GS tag when I’m not successful in the draw. In 5 days of hunting this spring, I saw 1 Tom. And I killed it. This spot usually has 20+ in it during the spring. It’s just sad.

What I don’t get is why they cut the LE tags in the central region but give unlimited fall tags now. Or why I can buy 3 fall tags but I can only have 1 spring tag? I dunno, guess it takes a biology degree to understand how to kill everything off year after year.


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## ns450f (Aug 28, 2018)

Do turkeys compete with ruffed or blue grouse?


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## toasty (May 15, 2008)

ns450f said:


> Do turkeys compete with ruffed or blue grouse?


Not that I have seen. The grouse stay higher than the turkeys which usually end up coming down to the outskirts of towns in the fields.

I hunted the GS on central region last spring and was into multiple toms every day of the hunt. The first week last year was insanely good, but it really slowed down after that. In the areas I hunt, I don't think numbers were down at all from previous years. I just don't see the fall hunt having a huge impact on bird numbers. They trap hundreds of turkeys in the central region every year and have for 10 years and it has not seemed to hurt the population. I think we are talking of 300-600 birds being taken in an area that holds 5000 turkeys. 10% harvest isn't going to hurt, how if we end up shooting 50% of the birds, we will be in real trouble, but 95% of the birds in my experience last year were in areas that were not huntable.


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## ns450f (Aug 28, 2018)

So I just bought a fall Turkey tag for southern ut. According to the guy at sportsmen's there are only 150 left. And they did not increase the amount of tags to be sold this year. So even though they changed the rules to allow a hunter up to 3 birds and to allow rimfire rifles I dont think it is fair to say the state is implementing an eradication program.....


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## sheepassassin (Mar 23, 2018)

ns450f said:


> So I just bought a fall Turkey tag for southern ut. According to the guy at sportsmen's there are only 150 left. And they did not increase the amount of tags to be sold this year. So even though they changed the rules to allow a hunter up to 3 birds and to allow rimfire rifles I dont think it is fair to say the state is implementing an eradication program.....


Northern and central is unlimited tags, with 3 allowed to each person. Considering the majority of the states population is in the northern half, i image those birds will get considerably more pressure than the southern half will, even if they have unlimited tags in the southern part of the state


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## ns450f (Aug 28, 2018)

sheepassassin said:


> ns450f said:
> 
> 
> > So I just bought a fall Turkey tag for southern ut. According to the guy at sportsmen's there are only 150 left. And they did not increase the amount of tags to be sold this year. So even though they changed the rules to allow a hunter up to 3 birds and to allow rimfire rifles I dont think it is fair to say the state is implementing an eradication program.....
> ...


I am surprised that they didn't make the southern unit unlimited. If the majority of the states turkey population is in the northern half than I think it is a good thing the tags are unlimited because there are so many turkeys in southern ut. I see them everywhere from 10,000 ft to 3,000 ft. I am amazed at some of the places I see turkeys out in the middle of the desert around St George.


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## sheepassassin (Mar 23, 2018)

Sorry I wasn’t clear, the population I was talking about was people. The majority lives in the northern half of Utah.


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## hawglips (Aug 23, 2013)

sheepassassin said:


> This state can grow 4 things very well. Carp, turkeys, elk and phragmites. And they try to exterminate every single thing they produce well, every year! I bought 3 central fall tags, and I'll buy my wife up to 3 if she decides she wants to go that much. It's sad that Utah has decided the turkeys need to go now. A lot of work has gone into getting good numbers of birds in this state, and now they decide to hammer them back into extinction.


I know some of the long time NWTF folks in the state who had a lot to do with getting birds established are not happy with the way the division is opting to undo the stuff that was done. The new federation leadership just goes along with them though, instead of working for the turkeys.

Now if they will just open the whole state up to everybody in April instead of the LE hunts - that'll be the coup de grace...


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