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SPRING TURKEY HARVEST
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) compiled statistics from
the state’s recently completed 2025 spring wild turkey hunting season.
The total reported harvest is 29,037, down 2,610 (8 percent decrease)
from 2024 and a 13 percent decrease over the previous 5-year average
(33,304).
“Going into the spring, I thought harvest this year might be down a bit
due to the poor reproduction that occurred back in 2023,” said Roger
Shields, TWRA Wild Turkey Program Coordinator. “The low productivity
meant we would have fewer 2-year-old birds on the landscape than in
years past.”
On top of that, this year was a very wet spring, which Shields said
likely impacted the harvest, both for its effect on turkey behavior as
well as hunter behavior. “We heard from a number of sources that birds
were not as vocal this year and as hunters, if we’re not hearing birds,
we’re often less inclined to keep heading to the woods, especially if
it’s raining all the time,” he said. “We’ll have a better idea of how
hunter effort changed and how that might have affected total harvest
after we get results from our post-season hunter survey.”
A total of 23,785 hunters reported harvesting at least one turkey, 1
percent lower than the 5-year average of successful hunters (23,996).
One turkey was harvested by 78 percent of the successful hunters and two
birds were harvested by 22 percent of the successful hunters.
There were 25,797 gobblers and 3,066 jakes harvested from the five new
turkey management units. The Central unit had a total reported harvest
of 13,775, followed by the Northeast with 5,839, Midwest with 4,607,
Southeast with 3,860, and West with 956.
The 2026 spring turkey season will be held April 11-May 24. The 2026
Young Sportsman Hunt is the weekend of April 4-5.
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