How’s New Jersey? Private and public

[Fletchshaw11]

Anybody have any thoughts or tips on New Jersey turkeys? How's public hunting? Any opportunities to get on private land? Or is it mainly leased like Oklahoma haha

[yelpy]

From what I gather NJ has a lot of private land. Maybe look up their dnr and give them a call for a map of public hunting. Try the onx hunt map.

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[mikejd]

There is a lot of public land available. The permit system is a bit stupid. You have to select the week and zone you wish to hunt. If it is a desirable zone you may not be able to get a permit for it. You can apply for your permit before the season and they will notify you if you receive a permit for the area and week you selected. If you do you then pic up your tag.

I live in NJ and have never hunted turkeys here. I hunt NY for 10 days so that eats up my time and with t b e screwy select what week you want system it never works out to good for me. They have a week that is like 4 or 5 saturdays. I have applied for that a few times but never got out. That 10 days in NY eats up 2 of the saturdays and then I usually end up working the others. Anyway sorry to ramble.
If you pull up public land in NJ for turkey hunting you will find so.e good info.

[Fletchshaw11]

Wow that sounds like it really sucks compared to what I'm used to. So you can only hunt one of the weeks out of the whole season?

[yelpy]

I guess it pays to do some research and not listen to hear say around here and consider the source. I have to apologize for my statement.

The couple guys I know that I got info from must either not do their research or were pulling my leg.

Sounds like they have a pretty strict way to control the turkey population and also sounds they dont want everybody in the woods at the same time for safety reasons.

Do you have to take a turkey hunting safety coarse also?

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[mikejd]

You can apply for multiple weeks.

Also you need to pick up and pay for your Tags before a certain date. After that date the tags that have not been picked up become available. But usually sell out pretty fast.

It's also good to have multiple zones lined up because you usually select your first,2nd and third choices. If that makes sense.

[Ross R]

I am not sure if it has changed since I last did it but I was able to get the leftover permits fairly easily. Even the "saturday" permit.  I also sit in front of a computer all day and well versed in the system since Florida had a similar one.  We hunted private farmland.  I want to hunt the public one of these days with my FIL. 

[JeffC]

Lottery starts in Jan. ends in Feb. pick your  zone of choice and then pick 2 weeks, "A" first week, B<C<D( 2weeks at end of season, 2nd week all day hunt), and "E" week(5 Saturdays ). A and E sell out for most zones first, then D. I have no trouble getting tags for all weeks and even a 2nd E tag most years, just have to put in some time when they go on sale. If you never had a Jersey license, you will have to go and apply in person the first time. Grew up in Jersey, wasn't a turkey season when I left, now paying non res. just to hunt them. Hunt southern part of state, see more trucks from out of state than resident's. Hunt mostly public, have some small private but it gets more pressure then the public. Knock on doors, most locals are tried of killing them, and tired of getting busted by birds during deer seasons. Good luck, read the rules, lots of game wardens.     

[quavers59]

New Jersey has plenty of Public Land.  I have hunted in NJ so we 1994. Plenty of Birds even though they are late Gobbling this Spring. I only live 20 miles from NJ  in NY.