KDSN RADIO News
Turkey season opens today with youth season
(Radio Iowa) – The wild turkey hunting season gets underway today (Friday) with the youth season. Iowa D-N-R wildlife biologist Jim Coffey says hunters bagged a record 16-thousand birds last year. “We’re expanding a similar harvest this year as well, because most turkeys that hunters are after are the two-year-old birds. And we had good production in 2023. Our 2024 production was down a little bit, but it shouldn’t, shouldn’t hamper hunters from seeing plenty of birds this year,” Coffey says. Coffey says the mating season dictates the movement of the wild turkeys, and that is why more of the young males are taken.
“There tends to be a dominance hierarchy, and those two year old birds are not yet on that dominance hierarchy, so they’re willing to travel, and then they have to fight a little bit more and kind of look for females versus that dominant male that just kind of stays in one area and kind of lets the ladies come to him,” he explains. Coffey says the warm weather has some of the wooded areas starting to get green, and that can impact turkey hunting. “So typically what that does is the green up means a little earlier leaf out, and that makes a little more difficult to see in the woods,” Coffey says. “So from a hunter standpoint, it can help you because it makes you a little less visible to turkeys that have great eyesight. But at the same time, it’s a little harder for you to see as well. And so as we see the season progress and get greener, it gets a little harder to see the birds and hear the birds and and so hunters like to kind of pick the right time of the year for their situation.”
Coffey says any edge you can get is important as wild turkeys have one of the lowest rates of success for hunters. “We’re going to expect around 22 to 25 percent of our hunters to be successful, and that just depends on how you define success. To me, any day you’re in the woods chasing a turkey is a good day. And some days we take a bird home, and some days we don’t, most days we don’t, most days we don’t.”
Coffey says to always remember the safety rules for any hunt. “And turkey hunting world, the first thing to do is be like defensive driving. Is we don’t want to wear red, white, or blue on our person because those are, those are similar colors, so that the head of the male wild turkey. And then, of course, if we do get a chance to take a shot, we must take a shot and know what’s beyond our bird,” he says.
The youth season starts things off and runs through Sunday. The first regular wild turkey season opens on April 18th.
