Spring Turkey Season 2012

 

 

Maryland's Spring Turkey season is quickly coming up, with the Junior Hunt this Saturday, April 14th, 2012.   The regular season opens next Wednesday April 18th, for all of us older hunters.  The first thing I would like to say is please, if you have a youngster under 16 whom wants to turkey hunt, take advantage of the youth hunting day and take them out and let them experience the excitement and overall amazing experience turkey hunting has to offer.  The other side of this is with me personally living in central Maryland my whole life; we don't really have turkeys here.  I saw one, a Jake about 10 years ago when DNR released them into Loch Raven attempting to get the population to re-grow as there really were none left.   I have heard a few gobblers while trout fishing along the upper Gun Powder River early in the morning, other than that, I never had the opportunity to see them in any numbers or even think about hunting them.  Now if you expand your hunting areas to the west of Baltimore or down on Maryland's Eastern Shore, you not only have seen turkeys, you have probably hunted and/or been lucky enough to harvest one.

In more recent years, turkey opportunities have grown. As I said, western Maryland and the Eastern Shore have tons of opportunities to harvest a turkey, and in more recent years the surrounding counties around Baltimore have started to show turkey numbers on the increase.  There is public land west and east of the Baltimore area that can be hunted with firearms, and in and around the metro area of Baltimore there is public land that can be hunted with a bow such as the reservoirs.  With more opportunities available, turkey hunting has surely become more popular than 10 years ago.  So I would love to hear from those whom are headed out turkey hunting this spring that may have more experience than me.  I would also love to hear from those whom hunt turkeys in other states, as I would love to hear about the differences in hunting different kinds of turkeys!

Below are some links to the seasons and bag limits for the Spring Turkey Seasons in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.

Maryland 2012 Turkey Regulations

Virginia 2012 Turkey Regulations

Pennsylvania  2012 Turkey Regulations

Delaware 2012 Turkey Regulations

We would love to hear from you about your hunting trips! Stories, photos or videos are always welcome as we try to share real experiences from the woods with all our readers.

Good luck to everyone headed out this spring gobbler season!

Hunting Information
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  1. Atrain
    Hey there, Where are the public hunting that allows for firearms? I have been trying to find a place to turkey hunt
    Reply
    April 14, 2012
    • admin
      Thanks for the question. As we have never hunted turkey, we are very new to turkey hunting and are hoping to get out with a bow or crossbow and try to take a turkey before the end of the season. As far as gun hunting, I did a little research for you there are couple locations and they are listed below: Here is the one in Harford County http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/Publiclands/central/stoneydemo.asp Here is the two that I know of in Carroll County: http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/Publiclands/central/hanover.asp http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/Publiclands/central/avondale.asp Here is one is Cecil County: http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/Publiclands/central/stemmersrun.asp As for the Eastern Shore I am not sure of which locations allow turkey hunting. I am including the link the public hunting lands on the eastern shore, I am sure at least a couple of them allow turkey hunting. If I knew more about those areas I would pass along the information, but as I said, turkey hunting is very new to me and the Eastern Shore is like a whole other world so to speak. Here is the link for the Eastern Shore public hunting lands: http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/Publiclands/wmaeastern.asp I hope this information helps, let us know if you manage to get a turkey and of course good luck!
      Reply
      April 15, 2012

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