Plagued by inconsistent weather patterns for Week One of Ohio’s 2022 spring wild turkey-hunting season, participants also are dealing with a general dearth of birds.
That decrease in how many turkeys Ohio hunters are encountering in the woods is showing up in the to-date kill across the state. As of May 1st, Ohio’s turkey hunters shot 7,551 birds. The to-date three-year average (2019 to 2021) figure stands at 10,759 birds. Meanwhile, the 2021 single-year to-date number is 9,745 birds.
Again, the weather for this season’s first week has proven erratic, making it challenging for hunters to even be in the field, let alone finding cooperative birds.
However, the game changer appears to be an on-going issue involving turkey “recruitment,” particularly in some areas of the state.
“Despite improved poult numbers (poults per hen, or ‘PPH’) across much of the state in the summers of 2020 and 2021, it appears Ohio’s wild turkey population has not fully rebounded from three consecutive years of below-average poults-per-hen during 2017-2019,” says Mark Wiley, the Ohio Division of Wildlife biologist in charge of the agency’s turkey management program.
“The regional PPH index remained low into 2020 in southeast Ohio, which may partially explain some of the more notable dips in harvest in southeastern counties this spring.”
Wiley says that recent changes in hunter participation and hunting regulations must be considered as well.
“We expected total harvest and the total number of spring permits to drop between 2021 to 2022. This is due in part to the recent reduction to a one-bird bag limit, but we have also observed a fairly steady decline in spring permit sales for nearly two decades,” Wiley says.
Hunter success rates will be a more informative metric than total harvest, “but we cannot estimate success rates until the end of the season,” Wiley says.
Even so, the top 10 counties with the most checked wild turkeys in 2022 are Guernsey (224), Tuscarawas (223), Muskingum (213), Columbiana (212), Harrison (208), Belmont (203), Jefferson (198), Carroll (186), Monroe (186), and Coshocton (185).
Ohio has two zones for 2022 spring wild turkey hunting: the South Zone and the Northeast Zone. The South Zone’s season is open until Sunday, May 22nd. The Northeast Zone (Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, and Trumbull counties) will remain open until Sunday, May 29th.
Here is the unofficial total of all wild turkeys checked by hunters in each of Ohio’s 88 counties through May 1st. These results include nine days of hunting in the South Zone, two days in the Northeast Zone, and the youth hunting season.
The first number following the county’s name represents the 2022 to-date turkey kill, with the three-year average for the corresponding dates shown in parentheses.
Adams: 177 (262); Allen: 38 (47); Ashland: 93 (112); Ashtabula: 132 (145), Athens: 146 (260); Auglaize: 14 (23); Belmont: 203 (335); Brown: 168 (259); Butler: 86 (126); Carroll: 186 (227); Champaign: 46 (56); Clark: 14 (11); Clermont: 132 (210); Clinton: 33 (47); Columbiana: 212 (268); Coshocton: 185 (288); Crawford: 32 (28); Cuyahoga: 0 (1), Darke: 38 (40); Defiance: 92 (128); Delaware: 50 (68); Erie: 16 (25); Fairfield: 59 (67); Fayette: 3 (7); Franklin: 5 (13); Fulton: 56 (68); Gallia: 184 (256); Geauga: 44 (67), Greene: 16 (12); Guernsey: 224 (327); Hamilton: 50 (61); Hancock: 14 (23); Hardin: 53 (55); Harrison: 208 (277); Henry: 21 (39); Highland: 156 (239); Hocking: 122 (173); Holmes: 119 (151); Huron: 38 (71); Jackson: 127 (234); Jefferson: 198 (275); Knox: 133 (200); Lake: 14 (24), Lawrence: 111 (150); Licking: 140 (212); Logan: 81 (67); Lorain: 53 (75); Lucas: 34 (32); Madison: 4 (5); Mahoning: 84 (118); Marion: 18 (23); Medina: 60 (71); Meigs: 184 (336); Mercer: 12 (13); Miami: 23 (16); Monroe: 186 (344); Montgomery: 9 (19); Morgan: 134 (222); Morrow: 81 (87); Muskingum: 213 (315); Noble: 173 (275); Ottawa: 0 (1), Paulding: 37 (44); Perry: 138 (182); Pickaway: 3 (14); Pike: 100 (126); Portage: 100 (152); Preble: 70 (67); Putnam: 17 (35); Richland: 108 (150); Ross: 145 (193); Sandusky: 13 (16); Scioto: 89 (176); Seneca: 63 (81); Shelby: 22 (29); Stark: 134 (162); Summit: 33 (42); Trumbull: 92 (123), Tuscarawas: 223 (312); Union: 38 (28); Van Wert: 17 (10); Vinton: 114 (197); Warren: 45 (62); Washington: 176 (313); Wayne: 67 (70); Williams: 113 (123); Wood: 12 (14); Wyandot: 45 (52). 2022 to-date total: 7,551: three-year average: 10,759.
By Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net
JFrischk4@gmail.com
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