... thing too that since we're talking about harvest is, um, what do you think the ideal, and there may not be a percentage but, um, what do you think the ideal percentage of harvest rate based off of how many turkeys that you have is to be able to continue to have a stable long-lasting turkey pop- population into the future?

Yeah man, you're, you're, you're striking a, you're striking a, you're striking something right i- in kinda in my...

I, I, I want to know that and that was work that I was conducting while at the University of Georgia and it's still being conducted and I'm still working on some of that work is, is trying to get at that question.

Um, it's, it's not as cut and dry as some might think and that's because of something that you said in, in the question and that's where population levels are at.

So right, your, your harvest rate or the amount of birds that you can harvest and not have negative effects on the population first depends on how many birds are in your population and then what that growth rate is, meaning so what is the recruitment metric? And so if you're making, let's just throw out a crazy number, four poult- poults per hen, um, your harvest rate can be higher in that population without negative effects than if you're making 0.8, right? Like, that's just basic math.

Like you [laughs], um, you, you're gonna be shooting too many turkeys and also the population size depends in there as well.

Um, the old research that has been conducted through simulations would suggest that a 30% harvest rate was sustainable.

... and, and connect with you and, and be able to find all the stuff that you guys are doing?

[chuckles]

... that wa- that was really cool being m- being able to see them so close, kinda let them feed off and do their thing and, uh, picked up and kinda went to the next spot where we knew there was a food plot.

It was [clears throat] mid-morning right at that point, so we were kinda just, had an idea that these birds might be out in the food plots hanging out 'cause we'd been seeing them in there the, the day prior.

And, uh, stopped short of another one, decided we were gonna kinda sit down about 30 to 40 yards short of where a road came out of a food plot and met the main road that we were on and, uh, sat down, uh, made some calls.

Didn't, didn't strike anything at, at all, um, to start with, and I would say about 15, 20 minutes in, all of a sudden, uh, a hen popped out at about 20 yards, and it was one of those things it's like by the time I saw her, she saw, saw us-

So.

Yeah, I mean, I, and I think, yeah, my, my piece of advice, kind of what Jacob, you know, hit on earlier, is keep that bird curious.

So depending on the size of it or the shape of it and where they're coming from, same thing, trying to, to make sure that when they see you, they are in gun range.