2007 Turkey Season

I phoned the larger registration stations on May 8th and most of the remainder on May 15th. It appears our total harvest by the end of May will be similar to the total May 2006 harvest of 3,559 turkeys.

I made a table of the registration stations in each of the 10 counties, comparing the May 2006 harvest figures per station with the harvest figures as of May 15, 2007. With two weeks to go in the season, it appears that most counties will be reasonably close in harvest to that of 2006. Coos will be down somewhat, and Rockingham will be up somewhat.

All stations have recorded more adult gobblers than jakes. This was anticipated because of the below average productivity last year due to record rains during spring and summer 2006. The following are examples of high adult to juvenile male harvest ratios: Drewsville 84 toms:31 jakes = 2.7. Claremont 81 toms:31jakes = 2.6. Hillsboro 90 toms:39 jakes = 2.4.

Weights are good as expected, with numerous gobblers in the 20-22 pound range and quite a few of 23-24 pounds. I have heard of one tom from the New Durham area of 27 pounds.

The age class breakdown of 115 gobblers from the Drewsville Store was: 1 year olds 31 (27%), 2 year-olds 49 (43%), 3 year-olds 25 (22%), 4 year-olds 8 (7%) and 5 year-olds 2 (2%). The percentages are similar for several other large registration stations in southwestern NH.

The harvest from the Youth Hunt (April 28th and 29th) seems to be similar to that of the 2006 harvest, at least in comparing registration data from 6 stations in the Keene area. During 2006 the harvest was 437 or 12.4% of the season total.