Preliminary data from the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) shows that turkey hunters checked 33,355 birds during Missouri’s 2022 regular spring turkey season, April 18 through May 8.
MDC says the top regular season harvest counties were Franklin with 798 birds harvested, Callaway with 614 and Gasconade with 606.

In the KMMO listening area, Johnson County hunters checked the most birds with 411 followed by Cooper County with 328 and Howard County with 327. Then it was Chariton County with 325, Carroll County with 317, Saline County with 291, Pettis County with 238 and Lafayette County with 220.

Young turkey hunters also harvested 2,896 birds over the youth weekend, April 9 and 10, bringing the overall 2022 spring turkey harvest to 36,251.

Last year, young turkey hunters harvested 2,795 birds during the spring youth season and hunters harvested 31,800 birds during the regular spring season for a 2021 spring season total harvest of 34,595 turkeys.

The 2022 spring turkey harvest was up about five percent from the 2021 spring turkey harvest but is still about seven percent lower than the average spring turkey harvest during the last five years (2017-2021).

“Our annual wild turkey brood survey indicates that, at the statewide level, hens have been producing one or fewer poults, on average, for the past 6 years,” MDC Turkey Biologist Reina Tyl said. “The cumulative effect of relatively poor production the last several years has been fewer turkeys and more challenging spring turkey hunting conditions.”

There were two self-inflicted firearm-related hunting incidents, one fatal and one nonfatal, reported to MDC during the 2022 spring turkey hunting seasons. There were no shooter-victim hunting incidents reported.