Young guns post another increase in Arkansas youth turkey harvest

LITTLE ROCK — Hunters aged 6 to 15 enjoyed one of the best Arkansas youth turkey hunts over the weekend, checking 1,443 gobblers, an increase of 22 percent over last year’s youth turkey hunt results.

AGFC Turkey Program Coordinator David Moscicki said the increase in harvest was most likely due to phenomenal weather and several years of good hatches.

“As turkey season has neared, I have had a lot of discussion about turkey populations and regulations,” Moscicki said. “The numbers don’t lie: Harvest is steadily increasing and parts of Arkansas have seen several years of above-average hatches. This has led to many folks seeing more birds on the landscape.”

Moscicki said that although youths may take one immature gobbler (called a jake) as part of their overall two-bird seasonal limit, only 317 of the 1,443 gobblers taken during the youth hunt were jakes.

“It’s about 22 percent of the youth hunt harvest, which is up 2 percent from last year’s youth hunt,” Moscicki said. “I suspect the juvenile harvest will remain around the 5 percent level of total harvest after the end of regular season, and that is where it’s hovered since 2011.”

Moscicki says gobbling activity was excellent during the youth hunt and should be great going into the regular season starting April 21, even though it falls a week later than last year’s dates due to a phenomenon known as calendar creep.

“Most hunters are likely aware that this year’s start is a little later than last year’s,” Moscicki said. “The regular season opener is set for the third Monday in April, and the youth hunt is the Saturday and Sunday a week ahead of that. The way the calendar days fell, last year happened to be the earliest season possible for that framework, and this year is the latest possible. Hunters will begin to see the opening shift earlier a day at a time as calendars line up for the next few years.”

Moscicki said peak nest initiation estimates from brood survey collections still support a peak nest initiation date of April 19, so hunters will still see good gobbling activity. The current season structure does an excellent job of straddling the line between providing turkeys enough time to gobble, breed and nest before the bulk of hunting disturbance and offering a good hunting experience for those who pursue the birds.

“When we see more birds on the landscape, we always hear from hunters who want to hunt earlier, but I am always cautious and remind people that turkeys are a boom-and-bust species,” Moscicki said. “There will be years that hatching will not be as good, which is what many Southeastern states saw back in 2020, which led to declines. It’s important to remain conservative where we can so we can maintain a viable turkey population through the good times and the bad times.”

Arkansas’s regular turkey season opens April 21. The season will end April 29 in Turkey Zone 1, which is composed of the extreme northwest and southwest portions of the state, as well as the Crowley’s Ridge area and northern portion of the Arkansas Delta. Hunters in Turkey Zone 2, which makes up the majority of the state, will have until May 11 to chase gobblers. Only one legal turkey may be taken in Zone 1, but the seasonal limit is two legal turkeys in Zone 2. Only one legal turkey may be taken during the first seven days of the regular season. All turkeys taken by youths during the youth hunt count toward their seasonal limit.

Visit www.agfc.com/turkey for more information on turkey hunting in Arkansas.

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CUTLINES:

BIRD ON KNEE
Zachary “Lunchbox” Miller harvested this stout Arkansas gobbler on the opening day of the 2025 Arkansas Youth Turkey Hunt. Photo courtesy Jason Miller.

YOUNG MAN WITH BLIND BEHIND HIM
Landon Luker worked this bird from his blind in the Gulf Coastal Plain for nearly 3 hours before he took his shot. Photo courtesy David Luker.

YOUNG HUNTER WITH TURKEY IN WOODS
Walt Baxter tagged this 22-pound boss gobbler on Sunday in an exciting hunt with his dad. Photo courtesy Dick Baxter.