With killer hatches in 2011 and 2012, the Missouri 2014 season will be a great year for harvesting a mature tom despite the lackluster hatch statewide in 2013. In a nutshell, there won’t be as many jakes running you over as there will be 2 and 3 year old toms. Turkey hunting Missouri in 2014 might just be a good destination for you guys living in states with poor turkey populations… say Alaska? 🙂

Missouri takes pride in managing their strong turkey population, and each year the state presents itself as having some of the best turkey hunting in the nation. See for yourself, take a look at their 2012 Missouri Wild Turkey Harvest and Status Report.

Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) Releases 2013-2022 Wild Turkey Management Plan.

VDGIF has released their strategy for managing the wild turkey population through 2022.  The plan is divided into two sections, which includes a technical section and a section dedicated to the values, goals, objectives and strategies of the plan.  The plan was developed through a series of focus groups with the fine folk of Virginia, and reports that the general public mostly weighed in on the public values regarding turkey hunting and management, while “professionals” focused on the technical aspects of managing wild turkey populations and habitat.  The information gathered in the focus groups was then provided to a Stakeholder Advisory Committee (SAC) to begin developing the plan.  The SAC was comprised of 13 representatives ranging from hunters to VDGIF biologists.

The VDGIF plan starts by covering the history, habitat, and other interesting facts about the wild turkey.  Another interesting section of the plan talks about mortality rates of wild turkey and their respective cause.  The plan then goes into further detail about hunter satisfaction.   The results from hunter surveys showed that hunters generally enjoyed spending time in the woods and the process of turkey hunting than actually getting to pull the trigger on a bird.  That seems true and harvesting a mature top certainly puts the icing on the cake.

If you are planning to turkey hunt in Virginia, this article will be worth a read.  Not only does it go into detail about Virginia’s turkey, it provides useful details about where to hunt, i.e. turkey population densities in the state.