Hunt Advisor Reports: Turkey Season Scenes

When it comes to the status of wild turkeys in Georgia, we’re certainly not out of the woods yet. Reproduction remains very low compared to the glory days of chasing gobblers in Georgia in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Something changed,  for sure, and hopefully answers and solutions will come soon.

The good news is that GON is seeing photos of smiling hunters with their birds, including quite a few of our Hunt Advisors who have been successful in the turkey woods. 

Here are their hunting reports: 

NORTH GEORGIA

Cherokee County: Tim Dangar, of Ball Ground, reports, “It’s been a good time in the woods here in north Cherokee County. We had a great hatch last year, which resulted in noisy woods this spring. Back in February, we had 11 gobblers on trail cam at one time. The first of April, gobblers were talking on the roost and on the ground. Now it seems they only gobble on the roost. A week ago we did have a couple of jakes come in silent, so stay alert. 

“The dogwoods bloomed early this year, which made prime time around the first of April. From now until May 15, hunt fields on rainy days, and if in woods, try a lot of calling. There are still hens that have not been bred, so get out there and keep at it. Until fall, stay calm and hunt on!”

Cherokee County: Greg Grimes, of Ball Ground, reports, “Our Cherokee County lease has been a blast. The youth opener had them gobbling their heads off. We thought a few times they were coming to us, but it didn’t happen. After not sealing the deal, we had to get aggressive before we had to head home. The birds were seen, but only their heads, and my 13-year-old didn’t feel comfortable taking the shot. 

“The regular opener had employee Matt Morgan call in a nice bird right off the roost. The one mid April hunt I was on, I found myself set up way too close. He was gobbling as I went in, and when he gobbled again I was under him (anyone else ever done that, lol). It was a fun show with gobbling and strutting on the limb. He of course flew down and didn’t come to me. Later in the a.m. I was able to call one from about 500 yards away to within 150 yards before he locked up. I made the move and set up near the property line on the lane I last heard him. Sure enough a few minutes later he came up the lane in silence and walked by me at 40 yards, stopping behind every pine tree he went by. Fun hunt.

“I think I will get one of the three left on the property later in May. It might take some light calling on an afternoon hunt to seal the deal, but I like the aggressive calling method. Sometimes you gotta be willing to change. Just playing the chess game is such a blast. I just hope to win one of these matches against a longbeard.

“You got the time still to give it a try. Get out the Thermacell and the permethrin for ticks because sometimes you can get on the right bird that is still in the mood for love up until the May 15 cutoff. 

“Good luck, and as a friend said, anytime you see a sunrise in God’s creation is a good day.”

Madison County: Keith Ingram, of Comer, reports, “I don’t know how to give this report without it just being an all out complaint article, but the truth is the truth. Turkey hunting just continues to decline in the majority of the state, in my opinion. I do the majority of my hunting in my home county of Madison, and up until last season, I was fairly happy with how the seasons played out for my son and I. 

“Last season I could see the numbers were down, but I was hoping it was due to the timber company thinning timber during the early part of the season, but evidently that wasn’t the case. We’re seeing very few tracks, and what little gobbling there has been pretty much shut down after fly down. 

“To make matters worse, I retired late summer, so I got in a big club in Wilkes County, but it’s been the same story there, too. I did call a jake in on that lease, but I’m not shooting a jake just to say I killed a turkey this year. I went on a quota hunt on a WMA over in west Georgia, only to have a coyote cost me a chance at a very nice gobbler over there. I also took a kid on a youth quota hunt on Buck Shoals WMA, and we heard some gobbling and saw some turkeys, but the gobblers were henned up really bad. We hunted all day, the day before Easter, except for an hour for lunch, and never could get a gobbler to work. They would respond, but they would not break and come in.

“It’s just been a very disappointing season, and not just for me. Pretty much everyone I know and talk to are feeling the same way. I don’t know what the answer is, but what’s being done right now is not working. I feel that there needs to be very drastic measures taken. I’m almost 63 years old, and I’ve got more turkey seasons behind me than in front of me, and I have no problem with very drastic measures to try and bring this great sport and bird back. My ideas: one mature gobbler limit, no jakes, and stop hunting at 12 p.m. I know people will read this and disagree and maybe get mad, and that’s OK. Everyone has the right to their opinion. If anyone reading this has kids or knows a kid 16 or younger, and you want to take them to a beautiful place with some birds on it, Buck Shoals is that place. It is a youth-only WMA.”

 

MIDDLE GEORGIA

Fayette & Meriwether Counties: Jeff Scurry, of Peachtree City, reports, “Opening weekend started off great in Meriwether County. Opening morning was slow—I only called in a few hens. Later that afternoon I set up in a different spot and heard a faint gobble on neighboring property about 400 yards across the road. I made a few loud cutts, and one more gobble was heard. I could tell he was getting closer. I finally saw him in the field, where he came in silent, closing the distance. At 150 yards, I saw the tips of his tail feathers in the grass as the sun was hitting him as he slowly got closer. Once he saw my decoys, he moved closer but stayed about 50 to 60 yards out, still strutting trying to draw the hens to him. He finally gave me a nice shot, and I dropped him at 60 yards. The tom had a 9.5-inch beard and 1-inch spurs. 

“On April 4, I was back at the same property, and that morning was perfect. Heard several gobbles on the roost across the creek. As the sun rose, I called in three jakes and two hens right off the bat. The jakes left the field and then returned 30 minutes later. After doing a series of cutting, I heard a double gobble behind me. Two nice toms came in and ran right up to my decoys. At 10 yards, I picked out the bigger one, which was very close to the second one, and dropped him at 15 yards after getting nice video footage. That tom had 9.5-inch beard and 1-inch spurs, also.

“I noticed the overall turkey population is still down in some areas like Fayette or where predation is bad. Turkey numbers are down on two of the three farms I have. Change in habitat around me and the rise in predators has, in my opinion, affected the turkey population.”

Monroe County: Greg Grimes, of Ball Ground, reports, “Camera survey has shown a lack of gobblers. I have changed up some habitat, but the timber stand improvement has yet to create enough nesting habitat I need to hold hens for doing their thing. I will have some gobblers until about March, and then they leave. If others are having this happen, it is likely a lack of good thicker areas where a hen feels secure nesting there.

“Other areas in Monroe County do seem to still have lower turkey populations than in the past. However, some buddies have had some good hunts and have taken some mature birds in the middle of April.”

SOUTH GEORGIA

Cook County: Josh Blackston, of Adel, reports, “Turkey season started off great for the Blackstons. A cool morning on the youth opener proved to be a hunt three Blackstons will never forget! Me and cousin Kevin watched a turkey of a lifetime meet his demise at the hand of an 8-year-old boy! My son Wyatt’s first bird sported four beards totaling 35 inches, 1 1/4-inch spurs, and it weighed 24 pounds! (See Wyatt’s picture on page 97 in the Realtree Kids’ Scrapbook.)

“Following the youth weekend, I hunted Saturday morning of opening day and had three jakes come in and put on a show. The next day before church I had four gobblers come in and only three left. Turkey season opened great for us in Cook County! 

“Turkey numbers seem up in my corner of the world. I saw lots of birds the weeks leading up to season. Me and the boy are planning a trip north to visit a very good friend from Woody’s Campfire (GON Forum), and maybe we can fill two more tags. But if we don’t, 2025 season has already been a success!”

Crisp County: Jodi Manders, of Cordele, reports, “Hello from Crisp County, I hope everyone has been having a good time chasing those turkeys. It has been a long, hard season around our woods. We got off to a real slow start, and it hasn’t picked up a whole bunch. We are just not seeing the turkeys this year. We haven’t even seen any sign of turkeys until the second week in April, and then it was only an occasional track in the sand and a couple of distant gobbles.

“About mid April, we started hearing a few gobbles and had a couple of birds roosted a few mornings, but we haven’t had any luck with them. 

“A few mornings one gobbled several times while still roosted and pitched down right after good light onto the neighbor’s property. There has been a hen roosting with him, and she pitched down into an open field, and of course that’s where he went. I have only seen three hens all season. We were seeing a good number of birds during deer season. I’m sure the hunting pressure is part of the no-show no-gobble problem. I truly believe the turkeys are there… somewhere!

“We are definitely not liking the later season start. The turkey were definitely more active late February and early March. I do consider part of our problem being that our neighbors keep their deer feeders full all year.

“I was graciously invited to go and hunt on a friend’s property and was able to kill a turkey that morning. In the words of my hunt guide Mike, ‘We finally got one to act like a turkey.’ 

“I’m not giving up on the ones on our property, I still have one tag left. Hopefully things will pick up these last few days, or we’ll get lucky and catch one strolling by. My advice would be to just keep at it, don’t give up. There is still time to tag one, or two. Y’all hunt safe, and God bless.”

Harris County: Jimmy Harper, of Hamilton, reports, “Game Check numbers for Harris County indicate the 2025 turkey season has been very consistent harvest-wise with the past three seasons. As I write this at the close of the last weekend of April (April 27), 108 gobblers had been reported killed in Harris County during the 2025 season. This number is very much on par with the 106 gobblers reported as killed in 2024, and the 105 toms reported as harvested in 2023, as of this same date. This three-year trend likely indicates that the Harris County wild turkey population has at least somewhat stabilized at a ‘new normal’ level, although the overall turkey population remains down significantly from what it was just a decade or so ago. 

“As for the Harris County properties I hunt on, the three separate tracts totaling a little over 850 acres simply do not have anywhere near the number of turkeys on them that they did a few years ago. In fact, I haven’t seen or heard a gobbler on any of them all season—although my game cameras have caught a lone jake passing through one of these properties on a fairly regular basis. In reality, the bird with the longest beard on any of these properties is an old boss hen with a 9-inch rope hanging from her neck, but I wouldn’t shoot her even if I could! 

“Most people would probably say at this point that these properties no longer support huntable populations of wild turkeys, and they’re probably right. I know habitat degradation is by far the biggest issue on the vast majority of these 850-plus acres, and that’s something I can’t change since most of this acreage is part of a timber-company lease. I’m the only person stubborn enough to still be turkey hunting on these tracts right now; everyone else has given up. There are probably many reasons why the number of Georgia turkey hunters has decreased over the last few years, but a lot of former turkey hunters have likely stopped hunting due to the significant decline in the number of turkeys available to hunt. I’ve personally seen this happen with some of my friends, in my own family, and on my own properties, simply because a lot of people don’t want to hunt unless there are enough turkeys that they’ll have a reasonable chance to have a successful harvest.”

Muscogee County: Jimmy Harper reports, “Muscogee County Game Check harvest numbers for the 2025 season continue to indicate significant problems for wild turkeys and turkey hunting in this geographic area. 

“As of April 27, only nine gobblers had been reported as killed in Muscogee County during the 2025 season. This number is even lower than the 12 gobblers reported as killed in 2024, and significantly below the 21 toms reported as harvested in 2023, as of this same date. Urban sprawl from Columbus is obviously an ongoing problem in Muscogee County, but there are several areas of this county which remain largely rural, and turkey populations continue to decline in those areas, as well. The private farm I have turkey hunted on for many years is a perfect example of that.

“I continue to enjoy turkey hunting on a beautiful 180-acre Muscogee County farm that is managed year-round for both whitetail deer and wild turkeys, but the turkey hunting has definitely changed over the last few seasons. The deer are doing great, but the turkeys are not. The turkey population has exhibited a slow overall decline in the numbers of both gobblers and hens over the last decade. Strict harvest and weapons restrictions have been in place on this farm for the last several years so that the gobblers would not be over-harvested, but their numbers have still declined significantly. There remains a couple of mature toms on this property this season, but most concerning is that no jakes at all have been seen on this farm in the last two years! Additionally, the number of hens on this property has decreased significantly over the last few years. Very few turkey poults are being hatched, and the ones that are born simply aren’t surviving to adulthood. 

“Late last April, I observed a hen on this property with four newly-hatched poults. I saw that same hen the next week, but she had only one poult with her. By the next week she was feeding alone. So, at least on this farm, the population decline ties heavily back to poor poult recruitment, which likely is due to significant predator issues. Although trapping has been done on this farm for many years to address predators, nothing can be done about avian predators due to federal and state laws, and they are destroying nests as well as killing both poults and adult turkeys. Truthfully, I’m afraid that I’m witnessing first-hand the slow death of turkey hunting on this special Muscogee County farm, and that would be a very sad thing to see. I hope I’m wrong. But, either way, I’m going to enjoy the turkey hunting there for as long as I can!”

Twiggs County: Richie Green, of Jeffersonville, reports, “Turkey season coming in later than it used to has done something to the turkeys around here. Or it could just be me, I guess. I haven’t killed a bird in Georgia in five years for lack of them on my clubs. Hogs, yotes, foxes, armadillo, etc, etc. have taken their toll on them. I’ve got hens galore, but the toms are scarce. On the other hand, the fishing is great…

“Some of my kinfolks have been raising their kids and grandkids right in the woods—hunting and fishing and loving every day. Keith Smith’s 4-year-old grandson Tucker killed his first bird on March 23 in the evening while hunting with his dad Justin Marsh. The jake had three beards, which is crazy to me.

“Keith’s other grandson Maddox killed a great bird that morning while hunting with his dad Micah. He said they got in the woods a few minutes after light, running a little late, and as soon as they get set up, the gobbler started answering calls 200 or so yards away. ‘Ten minutes later we see him come running in,’ Micah said. ‘We didn’t have a decoy, so he was looking hard. When he got behind a tree, Maddox was able to swing over, and when the gobbler stepped out, he got a jelly head. That boy is a killing machine with plenty deer and turkey under his belt.’

“Good luck to the ones out there with turkey to hunt, and try to save some for me.”