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Tom Venesky: Time for Pennsylvania to follow other states’ lead when it comes to turkey management?
Pennsylvania is a top turkey hunting state, but we’re not alone.
And one of the other hotspot states is changing things up in ways that might benefit the turkey population, and hunters, in Pennsylvania.
Missouri has long been a turkey hunting magnet, but recent concerns about hunting pressure and crowding – particularly on public land – has led the state Department of Conservation to make a significant change targeting nonresident hunters.
Specifically, Missouri has reduced the spring gobbler bag limit for nonresident hunters from two to one for the 2026 season.
The reason? Well, it’s just getting too crowded out there in the springtime woods.
According to Missouri officials, reducing the nonresident spring gobbler limit should reduce the number of days that those from other states spend hunting in the field. With a “one and done” mandate for nonresidents, Missouri hopes to alleviate the crowded conditions and heavy hunting pressure that has become an issue in the spring season.
I think it’s a good approach.
MORE TURKEY COVERAGE FROM OUTDOOR NEWS:
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If drastic measures are needed to reduce crowding and hunting pressure, it makes sense to prioritize resident hunters first.
As expected, the change has been largely supported by Missouri’s resident hunters, but some of them want the state to go even further. Among the additional steps mentioned is doing away with the two-gobbler limit, something that has been suggested in various forms in Pennsylvania as well.
But here in Pennsylvania we’ve been told that gobblers are “expendable,” and the second tag won’t hurt the population.
But South Carolina has something to say about that.
Starting with its 2025 spring season, South Carolina reduced the bag limit from three to two gobblers – a move that was supported by that state’s chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation.
In another move made by South Carolina effective 2025, hunters can no longer shoot jakes, which are defined as having a beard less than 6 inches in length.
The changes were made in response to declining turkey populations, which, when you bring Pennsylvania into the mix makes it confusing.
As mentioned, Pennsylvania’s turkey management approach considers gobblers to be expendable and the harvest inconsequential to the overall population.
But South Carolina took steps to limit its gobbler harvest because turkey populations were declining.
So does the spring gobbler season have an impact on overall turkey numbers in a state? Apparently South Carolina thinks it does, but Pennsylvania doesn’t.
In my opinion, any time you kill a bird – male or female – it has an effect on the population to varying degrees. I like the fact that South Carolina recognizes this and reduced its gobbler limit. As for the prohibition on harvesting jakes, I think that’s an interesting step that should be debated here in Pennsylvania.
I am fine with allowing the harvest of jakes for youth hunters – similar with how the antlered deer harvest is regulated (juniors and mentored hunters are exempt from antler restrictions). And I would be OK with a ban on harvesting jakes. After all, no one is out there in the spring gobbler season for the sole purpose of putting meat on the table.
The spring season is essentially a trophy hunt where weight, beard and spur length are what matters.
If hunters aren’t allowed to harvest jakes, they’ll live, and so will the turkeys. That’s a good thing if the population is weak.
Another interesting gobbler season approach enacted in both Missouri and South Carolina is even though each has two-bird limits for the spring, only one can be taken during the first week of the season.
When it comes to pressure, I think this is a great idea that needs to be considered in Pennsylvania. Allowing two gobblers to be harvested at any time of the season makes it a free-for-all. Blast one bird and get right back out there and do it again.
That’s not an ethical way to hunt, and such an approach just increases the hunting pressure which is a major factor why gobblers go quiet.
Again, if gobblers are expendable, does it really make a difference if the opportunity to harvest them is limited just a bit? What is it going to hurt?
There’s no doubt that Pennsylvania is at the top of the list among states for turkey hunting. If we want to keep it that way, perhaps it’s time to consider what other states are doing with their spring season and if it can be beneficial here.
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19 thoughts on “Tom Venesky: Time for Pennsylvania to follow other states’ lead when it comes to turkey management?”
Pennsylvania game commission could learn a lot from other states on how to manage our deer herd as well
In a residential area since 2019 with huge amounts of turkeys in a farm field behind us this summer and now all gone. Why since corn was grown, lots of woods deer birds and ground animals.
We had a huge flock and I was told they were trapped, tagged, and let go. I haven’t see them since 2022 but just the other day I seen maybe 2 dozen milling around in some woods roughly 3 miles from where they (if it’s part of that flock) originally were. I also noticed the Gobbler’s all had roughly 6″ beards which would make sense from the original flock of 2022. The original flock had Gobbler’s with 10″ beards easy….so my question is, did they remove the bigger/older bird’s out of the flock and let the Jake’s go? Hopefully I’ll find out this Spring.
The PGC no longer worries or cares what the hunters think.l think its a great idea for one gobbler and NO jakes.The PGC is a great example of DEI,they obviously want sell licenses but cater to horses,hikers and bikers that the hunting population supports financially while we hunters eventually put ourselves out of the woods.oh and by the way lets introduce and protect more preditors. Always remember the PGC has no money but the greedy legislators always want a cut in the till,when it comes down to it the PA hunters don’t have a say and sadly
I think Tom has a good point. Thinking one sex is expendable doesn’t make sense to me.
The question I have is when does the seasons for Missouri and South Carolina run? Is it early during the breeding time or like Pa., later in the cycle?
I agree with doing away with the second gobbler tag. Our population has been declining steadily as some areas have been hit especially hard with avian flu, and West Nile virus. The ever expanding coyote and fisher population has also greatly impacted young turkey pult survival. These are issue the game commission is not reporting and are real. Our turkey population in the southeast PA is one tenth of what it was in 2000. The Poconos and Northeast have also seen a huge decline. It’s time to let the biologists tell us the truth. Eliminate the second bird for starters. This will save Jakes which become next years breeders and long beards.
I agree, I could take 2 but always just one is enough.
😁 PA will change nothing. Biologist? Like stocking over wild trout population? But the state found a way to stock over class A even with their own biologists reports.
PA cares about $$$ from license sales period. And they love to put pics of come to PA for your hunting and fishing.
PA imo is and always will be a harvest first, conservation last. Shoot more doe, shoot more turkey, keep more fish, stock more fish.
Great comments here from people in the real world. In our area, it is a chore to find even one small flock of birds whether in the woods, farm fields or someones yard. This is not an overnight occurrence but has been quite visible over the past ten years. Will the game commission change course in any way? Let’s look at the grouse population and see the lack of change to a huge decline in numbers of the state bird.
We need to raise the Non-Resident hunting license fees. All other states are raising their fees so we need to follow suit. Hard to believe an OH deer hunt now costs almost $400. We get a lot of OH Hunters coming over for both turkey and deer. Let’s get with the program.
New York should do the same. Have One tom limit in the spring no jakes. Turkey populations not near where they use to be.
One gobbler limit and no jakes except junior and senior hunters sounds great to me. But the PGC will squirm with the thought of revenue loss.
No Fall Season……problem solved….
The pa game commission doesn’t give .2 shits about the deer population in severe decline in the northern tier county’s or the hunters input!! We paid for state game lands but can’t access them only on foot. Iam 67 yea iam going to walk 3 miles back in then drag a deer out! And 90 percent on the hunters I run into in the woods are elderly. A bunch of stuip suits in Harrisburg ruined or sport!!!!
The pa game commission doesn’t give .2 shits about the deer population in severe decline in the northern tier county’s or the hunters input!! We paid for state game lands but can’t access them only on foot. Iam 67 yea iam going to walk 3 miles back in then drag a deer out! And 90 percent on the hunters I run into in the woods are elderly. A bunch of suits in Harrisburg ruined or sport!!!!
Hey how about going back to the separate 2 or 3 day doe season!
PGC likes selling 2 tags for spring gobbler season because it is all about the money and the same for doe tags. Try deer hunting on the east fork in Potter County, it’s depressing.
I always thought of hunting turkey the same as deer. I let the Jake’s grow into the future to grow into the wiser Tom’s. But these days, just seeing a flock or hearing a gobble is wishful thinking. It’s just like other things in this country. They just don’t hear the people. They only see the money.
We used to here 5 or 6 gobblers, every morning when in the spring.Now we only hear one if we’re lucky. They need to find out what happened to the turkeys in 4A. We hear More Fishers, coyotes then we do turkeys. To see a rock in the fall is amazing.
Pennsylvania game commission was always the last to say they’re wrong if they ever do look what you do to the deer , herd can’t kill and still have them.