2009 Spring Turkey Season Statistics
Typical of unpredictable Mid-West weather, the majority of April and the beginning of May were cold, wet and windy, which made turkey hunting conditions tough.
The bird numbers in southern Iowa and north Missouri were down, but there were more than enough birds to work with on the hundreds of farms our hunters have to choose from.
For those interested in numbers, below are the stats we gathered from the 2009 spring turkey season:
This spring, a total of 298 members hunted MAHA leased land in Iowa, Kansas and Missouri. 168 hunted Missouri, 155 Kansas and 28 Iowa.
Fifty three hunted multiple states and 4 took on the challenge to hunt all three states. Two out of the four that hunted MO, KS and IA filled all 5 tags with mature gobblers, a third (one of our few women hunters) filled four tags. One of the two hunters that filled five tags harvested two 4-bearded toms and the other harvested 5 mature toms in 6 days, one with 3-beards. Two of the four were a husband and wife team that filled 9 out of 10 tags.
The heaviest bird reported weighed 28 pounds, the longest beard was 12 inches and the longest spur was 1 7/8's inch.
In Missouri, one member reported a flock of 12 long beards that hung up at 70 yards and several others reported 6 to 8 jakes in flocks together in Iowa and Missouri, which is encouraging for the future.
The majority of the members hunted 4 to 5 days on the average, but two local members broke the record for the most days hunting. One was an archery hunter that hunted 29 days and the other was a shotgun hunter that hunted 19 days.
As always, Nichole and Shaun enjoyed talking to all of the members before and during the 2 month spring turkey season. With or without tag filling success, it seemed to be another successful season.
