JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Preliminary data from the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) shows turkey hunters checked 43,380 birds during Missouri’s 2024 regular spring turkey season, April 15 through May 5.
Top harvest counties for the regular season were Franklin with 940 birds harvested, Callaway with 822, and Texas with 780.
Perry County hunters harvested 547 birds: 416 adult gobblers, 125 juvenile gobblers, and six hens.
Ste. Genevieve County hunters harvested 721 birds: 568 adult gobblers, 144 juvenile gobblers and nine hens.
Young turkey hunters also harvested 3,739 turkeys over the youth weekend, April 6 and 7, bringing the overall 2024 spring turkey harvest to 47,119.
According to MDC, that is a 6-percent increase in total harvest from 2023 and a 20-percent increase in total harvest compared to the previous five-year average
“2024 was the third year in a row in which harvest increased,” said MDC Wild Turkey Biologist Nick Oakley. “The ability to hunt all day on private land may have had a role in this increase. Successively better hatches starting in 2021 meant there were also likely more turkeys on the landscape as well. We are still looking at the data to see how much of the increase in harvest can be attributed to the new regulation, as well as how many new hunters the regulation change helped to get into the field. A 6-percent increase in harvest is in line with what we would have expected knowing that many factors play into harvest totals.”
Last year, young turkey hunters harvested 2,566 turkeys over the spring youth season and hunters harvested 41,977 during the regular spring season for a 2023 spring season total harvest of 44,543.
Get more information on this year’s spring turkey harvest numbers by county at extra.mdc.mo.gov/widgets/harvest_table/
See more information on turkey harvest numbers for past seasons online at http://mdc.mo.gov/…/turkey…/turkey-harvest-summaries
For more information about turkey hunting in Missouri, visit MDC online at huntfish.mdc.mo.gov/hunting-trapping/species/turkey