Hunting News

Turkey hunting starting May 1

Turkey hunting starting May 1

By Utah Division of Wildlife Resources

Utah's general statewide turkey hunt starts April 28 for hunters who will be 17 years of age or younger on July 31. On May 1, turkey hunting is open for hunters of all ages.

Permits will be available until the hunt ends on May 31. Hunters can get one online.

Permits are also available from more than 300 hunting license agents across Utah and at Division of Wildlife Resources offices.

Jason Robinson, upland game coordinator for the Division of Wildlife Resources, said because weather is typically milder in May, hunters will find drier roads and less snow.

Despite a tough winter in parts of Utah, Robinson says the state's turkey populations are doing great.

"This past winter was fairly hard in northern Utah," he says, "but turkeys are hardy birds. They can survive tough conditions. And populations can also bounce back quickly even if birds are lost."

Turkeys are doing so well in northern and southern Utah that biologists have been able to take birds from those areas and move them to parts of Utah where there's room for more turkeys.

"If you put turkeys in the right habitat," Robinson says, "they'll flourish."

More information about hunting wild turkeys in Utah is available in the free 2016–2017 Utah Upland Game & Turkey Guidebook, available online.

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