2002 Spring Turkey Statistics
Canadian and Assocition hunter that was a Moose and bear hunter all his life. He went spring turkey hunting for the first time in his life and tagged two toms his first season - a true hunter that can make this kind of transition at this pace.
Association self guided turkey hunting members harvested over 450 gobblers, but the success ratio was down to 1.2 birds/member due to heat and wind during the early Kansas turkey season and rainfall both weekends of the Missouri spring turkey season.
This was the second season open for the "youth only" turkey season and several 9 to 15 year olds filled their first tag, including an 11 year old girl.
2002 turkey statistics: The heaviest bird, 29 pounds; largest beard,13 inches; most beards, 4 and the largest spur was 1" 5/8ths.
The quickest a member filled all four spring tags was 4 days, another filled four in 5 days. The most days put in for one bird was 21 days (he's still married) and the longest a turkey hunter went without filling a tag was 18 days.
Turkey hunters declined in Missouri while increasing in Kansas almost 33%.
