Ohio’s fall turkey season harvest falls, along with hunter participation

Columbus — Ohio’s 2024 fall wild turkey hunting season exited the stage with an apparent indifferent audience.

In all, 651 turkeys were taken during the shortened season that ran Oct. 1 to Oct. 27.

“That is the lowest harvest since Ohio’s modern fall season began in 1996,” Mark Wiley, the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s forest game biologist, told Ohio Outdoor News.

Similarly, Wiley said, the wildlife division issued a total of 6,137 fall turkey hunting season permits this year, a decrease of 9% from the 2023 season. Permit issuance totals “have been declining steadily for decades,” Wiley said as well.

“In recent years, permit declines may have been partially influenced by changes in Ohio’s fall season dates, specifically a shortened season duration,” Wiley said.

That fall-off being noted, Wiley did say the permit success rates for resident, nonresident, youth, and reduced cost fall turkey permits holders in 2024 ranged from 6% to 9%. Thus, the 2024 permit success rates “were comparable to the previous five years,” Wiley said.

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“The record low harvest total appears to be primarily due to lower hunter numbers rather than reduced success rates,” Wiley said.

Crunching the numbers a bit more, the wildlife division saw that the take of birds consisted of 41% male turkeys, 57% female turkeys, and 2% unknown age/sex.

However, the total number of birds taken saw that shotguns were employed to kill 58% of all birds, representing, “a much greater percentage than the previous year’s 45%,” Wiley said.

Also, the top Ohio counties for the fall turkey harvest were Coshocton (33), Ashtabula (23), Trumbull (23), Guernsey (21), and Adams (20). The harvest was less than 10 turkeys per county for the majority of those Ohio counties with a legal fall wild turkey hunting season, Wiley said.

The wildlife division likewise received relatively few hunter comments and anecdotes during the 2024 fall turkey season, Wiley said.

“So, no news is generally good news as it relates to hunter comments,” Wiley said.

“Prior to the 2024 fall turkey season, the Ohio Division of Wildlife shifted the season dates earlier in the fall. A few hunters submitted comments about the earlier season dates, specifically expressing concern that high daily temperatures may limit their ability to safely run hunting dogs,” he said.