Ohio hunters checked 694 wild turkeys during the 2021 fall hunting season, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife. Open in 70 counties, the season ran from October 9 to November 28.
In Lucas County, hunters checked three turkeys this year. The three-year average is 12.
The top 10 counties for wild turkeys this season were Highland and Trumbull, 29 each; Columbiana, 27; Ashtabula and Stark, 25 apiece; Coshocton, 22; Tuscarawas, 21; Guernsey, 20; Clermont, 19, and Knox, 18.
The average harvest for the previous three fall seasons (2018, 2019 and 2020) is 1,079. In 2020, hunters took 1,063 birds.
The Division of Wildlife issued 7,470 fall turkey hunting permits this year, which is 21 percent below the three-year average of 9,428 permits.
Wild turkeys were extirpated from Ohio by 1904 and were reintroduced in the 1950s by the Division of Wildlife. Ohio’s first modern day wild turkey hunting season opened in spring 1966 in nine counties, and hunters checked 12 birds. The spring wild turkey harvest topped 1,000 for the first time in 1984.
Spring turkey hunting opened statewide in 2000. Fall turkey season first opened in 19 counties in 1996.
Learn more about wild turkey hunting at wildohio.gov, including information about previous seasons.
