Ohio’s spring turkey season ended, as it usually does, without much of a bang. A whimper? That’s never heard in gobbler world unless from a disappointed hunter.
Each segment of the season, which unfolds in three parts, typically starts feverishly, runs 30 days, and gradually fizzles to a finish. The first weekend, weather permitting, invariably provides the biggest numbers.
This season’s third and final instalment ended on June 1 in five northeastern counties after a May 3 start. There were 83 counties that opened this year between April 19 and May 18.
In the south zone, which includes central Ohio, there is a two-day hunt designated for youngsters on the weekend of April 12-13, which adds a chunk to the spring totals, around 10% of all bearded birds taken.
Once a hunter fills his or her single allowed spring tag, the game is over – at least legally. As the season nears its end, the hunting gets tougher and the players fewer.
The numbers for spring 2025 say unequivocally that hunters checked more birds, 16,014, than in any spring since 2020, when 17,894 were checked during a hunt in which a two-bird limit was still in effect.
The 2025 total, moreover, surpassed last year’s count of 15,535 by 479 bearded birds and the average of the last three spring seasons by 1,653. The harvest bottomed out at 11,872 in 2022, the first season in a generation that the Ohio Division of Wildlife set the limit at a single bird.
That 2022 season also set a 21st-century low in the sale of permits at 48,815. Permit sales this spring rebounded to 51,530.
And the 2025 success rate for permit-holders was higher than recent averages. About 26% of permit-holders bagged a turkey this spring, topping a five-year average of 22% for residents and 23% for non-residents.
About 29% of permit-holders took a turkey during the youth hunt. That bested the five-year average of 25 percent.
“The 2025 spring turkey season results should leave Ohio turkey hunters with a sense of optimism,” said Mark Wiley, turkey specialist with the wildlife division. “Permit success rates were up, suggesting a hunter’s likelihood of harvesting a bird has increased.”
Ashtabula and Trumbull, two of the five northeastern zones counties where the season ended June 1, both finished in the top 10 in birds checked during the spring. Ashtabula, not unusually, finished first with 516 birds, and Trumbull ended sixth with 403.
County results from the 83 south zone counties, where the counting ended with the season’s close in mid-May, saw Monroe move to second overall with 462, Belmont to third at 459, Guernsey fourth at 419 and Muskingum fifth with 406.
Licking led central Ohio counties, as it does perennially, with 256 birds checked, four more than the three-year average and plus one from the 255 checked last spring.
About 98% of the birds were taken with a shotgun, while bows claimed the rest, the wildlife division reported. About four in five turkeys checked were adult males, about 18 percent were juvenile males and 186 were bearded females.
As for future hunts, “summer poult indices and the 2025 jake harvest suggest a solid class of 2-year-old gobblers is headed into spring 2026,” Wiley said. “Increasing permit sales suggest there is new or renewed interest in pursuing wild turkeys in Ohio.”
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio hunters had successful season as state sees ‘renewed interest in pursuing wild turkeys’
Reporting by Dave Golowenski / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
