How's the turkey population in Norther Maryland ? Thinking about a hunting trip there this year.
Thanks for any help you can give me
If you go on their website, you can get harvest stats by county, and population densities.
It was an exceptionally low hatch in 2016. We had a very wet spring.
Quote from: terp on March 17, 2017, 06:59:18 PM
It was an exceptionally low hatch in 2016. We had a very wet spring.
thats what i was wondering
According to NWTF Turkey Country Mag Maryland turkey pop estimated at 33,000 birds and 2016 harvest of 3,874 birds. It would seem more of a question of a place to hunt. Numbers seem average for eastern states of this size.
I'm seeing roughly the same amount of turkeys I have in years past. Allegany County.
Here's a link to the MD brood and poult survey stuff, I too have seen normal number of birds and jakes on Lower Shore so not panicking yet.
http://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/Documents/wt_observe_survey.pdf
Not a noticeable change in numbers in the areas I hunt either.
Not certain about the state in general but the farm I'll be hunting is stacked.
I had MD tags last year from a deer hunting lease my father had in the fall and wanted me to hunt with him. The lease didn't have many turkeys around so I hunted public and only got out 1 day down there before Pa and NY opened but I had a good time and honestly i couldnt believe how little hunting pressure was out for public land. I did my research though and went to Western MD and hunted on the back side of the WMU on some rough terrain but loved it and heard several birds even for bad weather but as a PA guy if you hunt public and don't see another hunter you have yourself a good day.
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I haven't noticed a difference in numbers myself.
Glad to hear you all are seeing birds. I haven't been down to my lower shore stomping grounds yet this spring. I was just disappointed to see the DNR report and do remember the wet May. I imagine it takes a couple seasons of poor recruitment to really hurt numbers. I don't remember seeing many jakes last season in my area tho. Fingers crossed for a relatively dry spring this year
I live near the Mason Dixon of Frederick county and hunt close to Camp David, Md. Plenty of long beards in the area.....And abundance of Whitetail deer.
thank you for all the replies, this is a great help