Turkey harvest per 1000 acres

[JohnSouth22]

Curious to hear other opinions as to "how many" turkeys can comfortably the taken off a 1000 acre property and  not see much of an effect on hunt quality over the years, I know this will very state to state, habitat quality and overall bird population. So let's assume a healthy population with 4-5 vocal (not including sub dominate) birds at one time per thousand acres.

[WV Flopper]

 There is not correct answer to this as there are so many variables.

I hunt 260 acres of ground and kill 3 off of it every year, sometimes mores. Son, guests, in VA. Every year we leave Jakes. Next year there has always been more to move in.

It depends greatly on your habit, if you have good, desirable habit, kill them all. If you don't, you may leave one or two.

How good your ground is a major factor in this answer, along with your regions population.

[Dtrkyman]

I have seen 30% of the male population thrown around.  Seems reasonable, especially factoring in other ways gobblers can be killed throughout the year.

Very property dependent, I had a small 150 acre lease, killed 3 birds a year regularly and there were never a lack of them around, it was that good!

[roosterstraw]

I hunt on around 200 acres and we take a maximum of 3 birds. It holds a lot of turkey but the neighbors hunt too. The population seems to do well. There's a ton of hens on the property.

[Kylongspur88]

There's so many variables to that question. It really depends on the property, habitat, existing population, surrounding pressure etc.... In my experience and in my area turkey populations aren't as evenly distributed as deer. It's really case by case. For instance we killed 9 gobblers off a 500 acre property I hunt last year with plenty to spare but that's not the case on other places a half hour from there where you might be lucky to see or hear a bird on similar sized properties

[Howie g]

One per 100 acres has always been our rule of thumb .

[Kyle_Ott]

I believe your perspective on turkey harvest changes when you shift from being just a turkey hunter to a wildlife manager/steward.

When you start compiling trail camera pictures with in-person observations to determine your flock numbers you begin to realize how fragile the resource truly is.

Every 1k acre piece is different in terms of its habitat composition and the desirability of those habitat attributes to wild turkeys.

At the end of the day, I believe that harvesting 20% or less of your gobbler flock is the most ideal way to do business.  If your poult production from the previous year was exceptional and you have a tremendous jake population, perhaps you could consider increasing that to 30%.

There is no doubt that increased gobbler harvest reduces carryover and killing more than 50% of the toms on a property will absolutely impact the number of toms found there the following spring.

For me, I enjoy quality hunting and quality hunting means I'm hearing a lot of turkeys gobble.  Killing turkeys is certainly an important part of the hunting experience but in the era of population decline, being a quality steward of the resource and acting with the flocks best interest in mind is more important, IMHO.

To conclude, based on the scenario you provided, with 5 vocal toms and let's assume an additional 5 subdominant toms on the property, there's no way our group would kill more than 3 off of that piece.

[WV Flopper]

 With that, I will just say, wow.

Wish I was hunting a neighbor property!