Ohio’s wild turkey hunters checked 16,014 birds during the spring 2025 season, which concluded on Sunday, June 1, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife. The total statewide harvest represents all turkeys checked from April 19 to June 1, along with the 1,740 birds taken during the two-day youth season from April 12-13.
During the 2024 spring season, the total number of turkeys checked was 15,535. The three-year average for the spring season (2022, 2023 and 2024) is 14,361.
Locally, both Jackson and Vinton counties showed increased numbers of turkeys checked this year, versus the three-year average for 2022 through 2024. Hunters in Jackson County checked 289 turkeys in the 2025 spring season as compared to an annual average of 230 during the previous three-year period. In Vinton County, hunters claimed 245 turkeys this spring season as compared to an annual average of 206 during the previous three-year period.
The top 11 counties for wild turkeys taken in the 2025 season were Ashtabula (516), Monroe (462), Belmont (459), Guernsey (419), Muskingum (406), Trumbull (403), Tuscarawas (401), Carroll (396), Meigs (376), Columbiana (372) and Coshocton (372). In Jackson County, hunters checked 289 turkeys, and in Vinton County, they checked 245 turkeys. The season bag limit was one bearded bird.
Ohio’s wild turkey abundance peaked in the early 2000s. Since then, statewide turkey populations and spring harvest have fluctuated annually, but have been stable long-term.
The Division of Wildlife began an extensive program in the 1950s to restore wild turkeys to the Buckeye State after they were extirpated in the early 1900s. Ohio’s first modern day wild turkey hunting season opened in 1966 in nine counties, and hunters checked 12 birds. The total number of harvested turkeys topped 1,000 for the first time in 1984. Turkey hunting was opened statewide in 2000. The highest Ohio wild turkey harvest was in 2001, when hunters checked 26,156 birds.
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