JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Preliminary data from the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) shows that turkey hunters checked 33,355 birds during Missouri’s 2022 regular spring turkey season, April 18 through May 8. Top regular season harvest counties were Franklin with 798 birds harvested, Callaway with 614, and Gasconade with 606.
In local total turkey harvests, Texas County harvested the most birds at 648, followed by Wright with 404, and Douglas with 313.
Young turkey hunters also harvested 2,896 birds over the youth weekend, April 9 and 10, bringing the overall 2022 spring turkey harvest to 36,251.
Last year, young turkey hunters harvested 2,795 birds during the spring youth season and hunters harvested 31,800 birds during the regular spring season for a 2021 spring season total harvest of 34,595 turkeys.
The 2022 spring turkey harvest was up about 5% from the 2021 spring turkey harvest but is still about 7% lower than the average spring turkey harvest during the last 5 years (2017-2021).
“Our annual wild turkey brood survey indicates that, at the statewide level, hens have been producing one or fewer poults, on average, for the past 6 years,” said MDC Turkey Biologist, Reina Tyl. “The cumulative effect of relatively poor production the last several years has been fewer turkeys and more challenging spring turkey hunting conditions.”
There were two self-inflicted firearm-related hunting incidents, one fatal and one non-fatal, reported to MDC during the 2022 spring turkey hunting seasons. There were no shooter-victim hunting incidents reported.
