In spite of dealing with a regulatory shortened season, fall wild turkey hunters in Ohio still did better than just okay; they field dressed the final kill results.
Ohio’s fall wild turkey season was open from October 8th to November 13th in 70 of Ohio’s 88 counties. This season was two weeks shorter than has occurred in recent years.
The total reported wild turkey kill for this newly created abbreviated season was 1,003 birds. That figure represents a 44-percent increase from Ohio’s 2021 season – 695 birds – and was within one percent of the 5-year average of 999 birds (the years 2017 through 2021).
“If we exclude the last two weeks of the previous three fall seasons in Ohio (or the years 2019 through 2021), the average total harvest would be 737 birds per fall season,” said Mark Wiley, the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s chief wild turkey management biologist.
Wiley said, too, that increased permit success rates suggest fall hunters encountered better turkey numbers than in recent years.
“Above average poult indices in 2021 and 2022 also suggest turkey numbers likely improved. We typically see increased fall turkey harvest in years with high poult indices, though 2021 was a rare exception to this pattern,” Wiley said.
Not to be lost, either, noted Wiley, is that unofficially, the Wildlife Division issued 7,100 fall turkey permits, which represented a 5-percent decrease from 2021 when the agency issued 7,47 fall wild turkey-hunting permits.
And from all the 2022 fall permits, 50 percent, 9 percent, and 7 percent were issued to residents, nonresidents, and youth hunters, respectively. Reduced cost or free permits accounted for 33 percent, Wiley said as well.
“The permit success rate (percentage of permits resulting in harvest) was 7.9 percent across all permit types. This is above the 5-year average (again, 2017-2021) of 6.1 percent,” Wiley said.
In terms of where 2022 fall birds were taken, Wiley said that 95 percent reportedly came from private land and the remaining 5 percent came from public lands.
Interestingly, fully 441 turkeys - or 44 percent - were taken by landowners.
Broken down further, the total fall wild turkey kill included 50 percent male turkeys, followed by 48 percent female turkeys, and 2 percent of unknown sex.
Too, says, Wiley, the percentage of turkeys taken by shotgun was down, while the percentage taken by archery tackle was up. Way up, in fact.
Statistics show that during Ohio’s 2021 fall wild turkey-hunting season, 52.2 percent of the birds killed were taken with shotguns. Meanwhile, the just concluded season saw that number tumble to 45.3 percent.
Vertical archery tackle success remained pretty close year-to-year 2021 verses 2022: 16.4 percent and 16.7 percent, respectively.
However, the percentage of birds taken by crossbow soared. For Ohio’s 2021 fall season, 31.4 percent of the birds shot were taken with crossbow archery tackle, a figure that rocketed to 37.9 percent for this past fall season Wiley said.
Here are the preliminary county-by-county harvest figures for Ohio’s 2022 fall wild turkey-hunting season:
County |
Female |
Male |
Unk. |
Total |
|
County |
Female |
Male |
Unk. |
Total |
||||
Adult |
Juv. |
Adult |
Juv. |
|
|
|
|
Adult |
Juv. |
Adult |
Juv. |
|
|
|
Adams |
2 |
3 |
5 |
1 |
1 |
12 |
|
Knox |
6 |
0 |
9 |
1 |
0 |
16 |
Allen |
3 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
|
Lake |
2 |
0 |
6 |
1 |
0 |
9 |
Ashland |
5 |
1 |
8 |
2 |
0 |
16 |
|
Lawrence |
5 |
1 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
11 |
Ashtabula |
15 |
3 |
12 |
4 |
0 |
34 |
|
Licking |
13 |
0 |
9 |
1 |
0 |
23 |
Athens |
6 |
0 |
8 |
1 |
2 |
17 |
|
Logan |
3 |
0 |
6 |
1 |
0 |
10 |
Belmont |
13 |
0 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
21 |
|
Lorain |
4 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
8 |
Brown |
4 |
0 |
7 |
1 |
0 |
12 |
|
Lucas |
9 |
1 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
14 |
Butler |
4 |
0 |
11 |
0 |
0 |
15 |
|
Mahoning |
7 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
11 |
Carroll |
6 |
3 |
8 |
1 |
0 |
18 |
|
Medina |
2 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
Champaign |
1 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
1 |
5 |
|
Meigs |
7 |
3 |
13 |
2 |
0 |
25 |
Clermont |
5 |
0 |
8 |
2 |
0 |
15 |
|
Monroe |
13 |
2 |
14 |
0 |
1 |
30 |
Columbiana |
5 |
2 |
17 |
3 |
0 |
27 |
|
Morgan |
8 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
0 |
16 |
Coshocton |
15 |
5 |
16 |
1 |
1 |
38 |
|
Morrow |
1 |
2 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
6 |
Crawford |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
|
Muskingum |
12 |
1 |
13 |
0 |
0 |
26 |
Cuyahoga |
0 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
|
Noble |
6 |
1 |
5 |
1 |
0 |
13 |
Defiance |
2 |
0 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
10 |
|
Paulding |
2 |
1 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
7 |
Delaware |
2 |
0 |
7 |
3 |
0 |
12 |
|
Perry |
8 |
1 |
11 |
2 |
0 |
22 |
Erie |
1 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
4 |
|
Pike |
5 |
1 |
10 |
1 |
0 |
17 |
Fairfield |
4 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
7 |
|
Portage |
6 |
0 |
6 |
2 |
0 |
14 |
Franklin |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
Preble |
5 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
1 |
10 |
Fulton |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
|
Putnam |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
Gallia |
8 |
1 |
8 |
2 |
0 |
19 |
|
Richland |
8 |
3 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
17 |
Geauga |
14 |
1 |
6 |
2 |
0 |
23 |
|
Ross |
4 |
0 |
8 |
3 |
0 |
15 |
Guernsey |
16 |
1 |
6 |
3 |
0 |
26 |
|
Scioto |
6 |
0 |
4 |
1 |
0 |
11 |
Hamilton |
3 |
1 |
9 |
1 |
0 |
14 |
|
Seneca |
1 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
6 |
Hancock |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
|
Stark |
11 |
1 |
6 |
0 |
1 |
19 |
Hardin |
0 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
|
Summit |
5 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
6 |
Harrison |
8 |
3 |
15 |
1 |
0 |
27 |
|
Trumbull |
7 |
6 |
8 |
1 |
2 |
24 |
Henry |
2 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
|
Tuscarawas |
13 |
4 |
15 |
2 |
0 |
34 |
Highland |
13 |
4 |
9 |
2 |
1 |
29 |
|
Vinton |
8 |
1 |
9 |
1 |
0 |
19 |
Hocking |
10 |
1 |
5 |
1 |
0 |
17 |
|
Warren |
2 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
7 |
Holmes |
3 |
4 |
11 |
1 |
0 |
19 |
|
Washington |
13 |
3 |
8 |
3 |
1 |
28 |
Huron |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
Wayne |
3 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
9 |
Jackson |
6 |
2 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
13 |
|
Williams |
2 |
1 |
4 |
1 |
0 |
8 |
Jefferson |
12 |
2 |
8 |
0 |
1 |
23 |
|
Wyandot |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Grand Total |
403 |
81 |
436 |
67 |
16 |
1,003 |
By Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net
JFrischk4@gmail.com
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