And after the first seven days of the season, more than 64 percent of the total turkey kill was made. The spring turkey season, when only bearded birds are legal, runs May 1-31. Two bearded birds can be taken. Hunting hours are a half-hour before sunrise until noon. Of course, there are a number of factors that make the early season so important.
Birds are gobbling more, there are more hunters in the woods and hunter confidence is still high.
As the season goes by, the kill takes a serious drop, with some obvious blips during the weekend when hunter pressure will be at its highest. Interestingly, every weekend, the numbers increase enough to make it clear that hunting pressure plays a crucial role in the final turkey kill. Fridays, when some turkey hunters were obviously stretching their weekends, show a slight blip in the kill from earlier in the week. Of course, weather can play havoc with the figures. If the day dawns raining and it drizzles for the rest of the morning, the kill for that day will be down considerably.