The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources announced a harvest of 24,447 turkeys during the 2023 spring turkey season. This represents the highest spring turkey harvest ever recorded in Virginia.
The previous record was 20,580 set during the 2015 spring hunting season. “Turkey populations remain healthy and abundant across most of Virginia, enabling hunters to enjoy a record-setting spring turkey season,” DWR executive director Ryan Brown said.
DWR biologists anticipated the spring turkey harvest would increase during the 2023 season as indicated by above average brood survey results in 2021. The department’s annual brood survey is a measure of productivity and recruitment within Virginia’s turkey population.
In 2021, the survey indicated above average recruitment of turkey poults across much of the state. These birds are now two years old, and two-year-old gobblers are typically very eager to respond to hunter’s calls. These two-year-old birds also tend to be more vocal, so they ar...