WV GOBBLER SEASON OPENS

(04/18/2017)
West Virginia's statewide spring gobbler season opens Monday, April 17 and runs through Saturday, May 13. Hunters may kill only one bearded turkey per day and two during the season.

Because the typical gobbler harvested is usually a 2-year-old bird, the Division of Natural Resources routinely projects the harvest by using brood reports from two years earlier.

On a statewide scale, the brood reports from 2015 exceeded the five-year average by 14 percent, thanks in large part to the contribution of the southern region, which saw brood observations increase by 67 percent.

Observations from the mountain counties declined by 44 percent with the remaining two regions at or exceeding the prior year's recruitment, meaning that over most of the state, relative abundance should be greater this year.