Hunters aged 6 to 15 checked 1,443 gobblers during the Arkansas youth turkey hunts April 12 and 13, an increase of 22 percent over last year’s total. Meanwhile young turkey hunters in Ohio, enjoying their state’s special season to pursue gobblers the same weekend, took 1,740, beating the three-season average of 1,571 birds.
Arkansas
“The numbers don’t lie: Harvest is steadily increasing and parts of Arkansas have seen several years of above-average hatches,” Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Turkey Program Coordinator David Moscicki said. “This has led to many folks seeing more birds on the landscape.”
Moscicki said that although youths may take one immature gobbler (called a jake) as part of their overall two-bird seasonal limit, only 317 of the 1,443 gobblers taken during the youth hunt were jakes.
“It’s about 22 percent of the youth hunt harvest, which is up two percent from last year’s youth hunt,” he added. “I suspect the juvenile harvest will remain around the 5 percent level of total harvest after the end of regular season, and that is where it’s hovered since 2011.”
The regular season is later than last year’s dates, he added, but peak nest initiation estimates from brood survey collections still support a peak nest initiation date of April 19. That means hunters will still see good gobbling activity. The current season structure does an excellent job of straddling the line between providing turkeys enough time to gobble, breed and nest before the bulk of hunting disturbance.
“When we see more birds on the landscape, we always hear from hunters who want to hunt earlier, but I am always cautious and remind people that turkeys are a boom-and-bust species,” Moscicki said. “There will be years that hatching will not be as good, which is what many Southeastern states saw back in 2020, which led to declines. It’s important to remain conservative where we can so we can maintain a viable turkey population through the good times and the bad times.”
Ohio
Youth wild turkey hunters across Ohio checked 1,740 birds during the state’s special youth-only weekend of turkey hunting, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife. The two-day season was open to hunters aged 17 and younger, and participants were required to be accompanied by a nonhunting adult.
The three-year average for wild turkeys taken during the youth season (2022-2024) is 1,571 birds. In 2024, youth hunters bagged 1,785 turkeys on the corresponding weekend.
As of Sunday, April 13, the Division of Wildlife issued 6,731 youth turkey permits, which can be used throughout the 2025 wild turkey hunting season. The season limit is one bird, and only bearded turkeys may be taken.
The top 10 counties for wild turkeys checked during the 2025 youth season were: Monroe (62), Noble (60), Guernsey (55), Tuscarawas (55), Muskingum (54), Belmont (52), Ashtabula (49), Carroll (49), Harrison (47), and Columbiana (43).
The Spring wild turkey hunting for all ages in the 83 counties that comprise the south zone runs April 19 to May 18. In the northeast zone (Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, and Trumbull counties), hunting opens May 3 and concludes June 1. Season dates in the northeast zone correspond with later turkey incubation in that region.
