Missouri’s spring turkey season runs from today through May 11. The youth season takes place April 12 and 13. This year’s hunting regulations are nearly the same as last year.
One difference is in tagging requirements. Hunters no longer need to attach their voided permits to harvested turkeys, as long as they remain with the turkey. If you are away from your turkey, you must attach your voided permit to the bird’s leg.
Labeling requirements also have changed. In previous years, turkeys had to be labeled with the taker’s name, address, and Telecheck confirmation number before someone other than the taker could transport or possess the turkey. Beginning this year, date of harvest also must be included in the labeling information.
Before someone other than the taker can transport a turkey that has been reported through the Telecheck system, it must be labeled with the date taken, the taker’s name, address, and Telecheck confirmation number.
photo: 2014 Spring Turkey Hunting Regulation Booklet
Also new this year is the addition of crossbows and atlatls to take turkeys during the spring season. Managed turkey hunts will be held on several additional conservation areas this spring. Details about these and other turkey hunting regulations are available in the 2014 Spring Turkey Hunting Regulation and Information booklet, which is available from hunting permit vendors and Conservation Department offices statewide.
Season Forecast
Resource Scientist Jason Isabelle is in charge of the Missouri Department of Conservation’s wild turkey-management program. When asked about prospects for this year’s spring turkey season, he pointed to turkey reproduction statistics from the past three years. Observers throughout much of the state reported strong production in 2011 and 2012. That means hunters in these areas can expect to see strong numbers of 2- and 3-year-old gobblers this year.
Hunters prize 3-year-old gobblers are prized by hunters because their greater experience makes them challenging to hunt. They have longer spurs and weigh more on average than younger birds, giving them a higher status among hunters.
On the other hand, 2-year-old gobblers are more likely than younger or older birds to gobble lustily and often. Lots of gobbling makes hunting more exciting, so much so that most hunters consider gobbling activity the most important part of a good hunt.
“Hunters throughout much of the state should be in for a good spring turkey season,” says Isabelle. “There should be quite a bit of gobbling and good numbers of adult birds for hunters to pursue.”
Isabelle noted that wild-turkey production dipped last year, so 1-year-old gobblers – commonly called jakes – will be less abundant this spring. That won’t affect the quality of hunting all that much now, but it should be a caution to hunters who want to continue hearing lots of gobbling in the future.
“Hunting is a substantial source of mortality for male turkeys,” says Isabelle. “Most jakes survive to be 2-year-old gobblers. Of course, jakes are legal to harvest in Missouri and they do make excellent table fare, but for those hunters interested in having more adult gobblers in their hunting area in the future, passing up opportunities to shoot jakes is one way to achieve that.”
Predicting any given year’s turkey harvest is difficult, because weather exerts a strong influence on turkey behavior and hunter effort. With more-or-less-average weather, Isabelle says he expects this year’s state-wide spring turkey harvest to be close to last year’s combined total of about 46,000 for the youth and regular seasons.
Turkey numbers vary among regions in Missouri. Although hunter success tends to be lower in the Ozarks, where large tracts of timber make hunting more difficult, hunters in southern Missouri are likely to notice an increase in turkey numbers, particularly in eastern counties.
“We’ve seen some very good production for the last three years in the eastern Ozarks,” says Isabelle. “This good production should translate into some great hunting opportunities. Another region of the state where I expect to see an increase in harvest is the Ozark border, including counties like Cedar, St. Clair, Hickory, Polk, Christian, and Webster.”
He says he doesn’t expect much change in turkey harvest from last year in most of the rest of the state. Exceptions include parts of northwest, west-central, and southwest Missouri, where production has not shown the improvements that it has elsewhere. Offsetting this, however, are the tactical advantages hunters enjoy in northern Missouri, where wooded tracts are smaller and more scattered. In these areas, turkeys are more visible and decoys are generally more effective in bringing turkeys within range.
Isabelle says he doesn’t expect this year’s severe winter weather to affect turkey hunting.
“I don’t think that the conditions we experienced this winter negatively affected turkey survival,” he says. “Turkeys can deal with cold weather quite well. Although we did get a few snow storms, none of the totals that we saw or the length of time that snow conditions persisted were severe enough to negatively impact turkey survival.