2003 Spring Turkey Statistics
The Association turkey hunters harvested 424 toms with the youth hunting season accounting for 11 of those birds. The success ratio rebounded from last season to 1.44 toms per hunter. This higher turkey hunting success was believed due to the economy keeping away the less dedicated hunters and with more individual turkey hunters opting to fill more of their possible 4 tags than hunters settling for one tom and hunting more than one state.
The largest tom reported weighed in at 28 pounds. Other than several reported multiple bearded toms. No other unusual birds were reported.
Overall spring turkey season hunter numbers declined this season, again some citing the economy, and those that did hunt spread themselves toward the latter half of the season when most believed the toms are easier to call in.
A positive sign were the overall number of youth spring season turkey hunters this season surpassing our previous experience. While their total success rate were lower, a good number of hunting stories were enthusiastically retold.
Our lady spring turkey season hunters, the few that there are, certainly do well.
While more of our lady hunters turkey hunt to spend time with their family those that send us letters have certainly expressed satisfaction at attaining success.
"...I counted the hours we were in the woods and it was 20+, over a 2 day period for one bird, not to mention 2 days of scouting..."
Same youth turkey hunter as above, same season, different state, second tom.
