Timing alone would make it special. Pennsylvania’s upcoming spring gobbler season – the state’s only big-game hunt outside of fall and winter – takes place when the world seems new, freshly green and alive.

This year’s season begins on Saturday, April 23 with a one-day hunt for junior and youth mentored hunters, then runs from Saturday, April 30 to Tuesday, May 31 for everyone else.

But it has a lot more going for it than just that.

Gobbler hunting is huge on excitement, too. There are few things as thrilling as calling in a wary turkey. No wonder more than 150,000 hunters take to forests and fields each spring to chase these birds.

Plenty of opportunity awaits them, as usual. In fact, Game Commission turkey biologist Mary Jo Casalena said the statewide flock – always among the largest anywhere in the East – is likely bigger right now than at any time in the last few years.

She credited that increase to a number of factors.

First, 2021’s recruitment – or influx of new turkeys into the population – was very good, courtesy of warm, dry weather last spring and, in places, lots of cicadas to eat. Survey work revealed 3.1 poults per hen, on average, statewide.

“That was our highest ratio since we began monitoring recruitment,” Casalena said.

A smaller-than-usual spring 2021 harvest and shorter fall turkey seasons in some Wildlife Management Units (WMUs), coupled with a statewide elimination of rifles for fall turkey hunting, also surely boosted flocks.

“That should all translate into a lot of high-spirited jakes on the landscape,” Casalena said. “Hunters should find a larger-than-normal percentage of older, 3-year-old turkeys out there, too. So there’s certainly reason for optimism again this year.”

Those birds won’t necessarily be easy to harvest; neither jakes nor older birds typically are as vocal as 2-year-olds, she added. But hunters can up their odds of tangling with a tom turkey by preparing before opening day.

Casalena recommends scouting, looking either for actual birds, turkey sign such as droppings, feathers, scratchings and tracks, or at least places where turkeys might be, like openings close to and easily accessible from roosting areas where gobblers prefer to strut.

All the while, back home, practice calling.

“The most important call is the hen yelp,” Casalena said. “The hunter wants to imitate a hen to attract the gobbler to come within range. After that it’s a matter of practicing and learning other calls like the different cackles and purrs and understanding when to use each. Friction calls have great sound and pitch, while mouth calls are the most convenient, especially when being still is important.”

None of that guarantees success, of course. About 15 percent of hunters harvested one gobbler last spring overall. About 18 percent of the near-record 25,210 people who bought a special spring turkey license, or second gobbler tag, took a second. Those figures are comparable to long-term averages.

But the only hunters to fill their tags are those who go out and hunt. So this spring, visit turkey country and see what happens.

“There’s never a bad time to be in the woods, especially when getting out offers the chance to square off with one of our amazing if unpredictable gobblers,” Casalena said.

Reporting

harvests

Successful turkey hunters must immediately tag their bird before moving it from the harvest site and are required by law to report the harvest to the Game Commission.

Hunters, by law, must report harvests within 10 days. Reporting harvests is key to turkey management, as it allows the Game Commission to more accurately estimate harvest and population totals.

Hunters can report turkeys in any of three ways: by visiting www.pgc.pa.gov and clicking the blue “Report a Harvest” button near the top of the home page; by calling 1-800-838-4431; or by filling out and mailing the harvest report card in the digest hunters get when they buy a license.

Have your harvest tag in front of you when reporting to be sure you can provide all of the requested information.

Hunters also are asked to report any turkeys they harvest with leg bands. Information collected on those birds – which are legal to take – helps estimate spring harvest rate and annual survival rate by Wildlife Management Unit, Casalena said. That’s critical to developing the state’s turkey population model.

Leg bands feature a toll-free number or email address for reporting.