What really ticked Arkansas hunters off was the way the fall turkey season was handled. The Hunting regulations books had been printed and the fall turkey season dates and limits had been set. One week before the season opened the Arkansas Game and Fish Commissioners (7 of them) voted to close fall turkey season. The vote was 4-3. Some of these guys have very little interest in fall hunting and supposedly voted "NO" for political reasons. I am not sure that the few turkeys that are harvested in the fall here have much of an impact on the overall population. Our numbers are down, WAY down in some parts of the state. I am fortunate in that we still have a few birds where I hunt but nothing like the numbers we had five years ago. I think that the spring season dates and length and harvest limits need to be adjusted to help our numbers. Also, we have such a tremendous number of predators and nobody traps or hunts them much amymore. Five years ago a person could go out in the spring and hear several gobbles and decide which way to hunt. Now if a person gets on one bird a day it has been a good hunt.
