The younger hunters of Missouri got here out in droves over the weekend to set a seven-year turkey harvest document. All in, hunters aged 6 to fifteen tagged 3,721 birds over the two-day spring youth season, marking the very best whole recorded since 2017.
That quantity considerably overshadows the harvest whole from the 2023 youth weekend of two,550 gobblers. The distinction of 1,171 birds accounts for a 46 p.c year-over-year enhance — the likes of which appear unlikely in in the present day’s period of shrinking hunter numbers and declining turkey populations.
The highest three counties for harvest had been Gasconade with 92 birds, Osage with 90, and Franklin with 89. These counties border one another in a horizontal line within the japanese a part of the state, instantly east of Jefferson Metropolis. MDC turkey biologist Nick Oakley pins the success a minimum of partially on good circumstances.
“Favorable morning climate seems to have greater than made up for some windy afternoons this yr,” Oakley says in an MDC press release. “Youth harvest elevated by greater than a thousand birds in comparison with the 2023 youth season and was the very best harvest whole since 2017. Successively higher hatches over the past a number of years have helped the turkey inhabitants stabilize and hunters are beginning to see the outcomes of that within the area.”
However on the Friday earlier than the youth weekend, commissioners with the Missouri Division of Conservation handed a lowered fall bag restrict statewide in response to issues over fewer birds on the panorama. To supply extra flexibility within the springtime, commissioners additionally handed a taking pictures hour extension for spring turkey hunters on personal land. Hunters there can now harvest birds till sundown, reasonably than having to close their seek out at 1 p.m. Spring hunts are bearded-bird solely, and the present bag restrict of two birds stays in place. (Bearded hens are honest recreation throughout the spring season.)
Whereas the autumn discount may really feel prefer it runs opposite to the success of Missouri’s 2024 youth weekend, it’s meant to assist stabilize hen numbers, former MDC turkey biologist and present large recreation biologist Jason Isabelle advised Outside Life on Tuesday. Since fall turkey hunts enable for either-sex harvest, some concern round hen harvest and making certain nest productiveness is legitimate.
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“We have a tendency to listen to extra concern about fall season than the spring as a result of it’s an either-sex season,” Isabell says. “So with decrease turkey numbers and that hunter concern, we determined to turn out to be extra conservative with our fall laws.”
