Looking at the remaining Top 10, Wayne County hunters held onto the third spot for consecutive years with a harvest of 948 birds. Maury County moved up the ladder from the ninth spot in 2005 to the fourth spot in 2006 with a take of 896 turkeys. The Top 5 was rounded out by Giles County with a harvest of 894 turkeys and a drop from the second spot in 2005 when they took 944 turkeys.

Montgomery County fell one spot to sixth in 2006 with a harvest of 891 turkeys. Hunters there had 864 in 2005. Hardin County hunters maintained their hold on the seventh spot statewide again in 2006 when they tagged 772 turkeys compared with 726 in 2005. Likewise, Hawkins County finished in the eighth spot for consecutive seasons. Hunters there took 759 birds in 2006 compared with 674 in 2005. Rutherford County made its Top 10 appearance in the ninth spot with a harvest of 736 birds. Williamson County took the last Top 10 spot again in 2006 as they did in 2005. Hunters there tagged 697 birds in 2006, slightly better than the 2005 harvest of 643 turkeys.

Statewide, Region II still reigns supreme in Tennessee turkey harvest lore. The rest of the state’s four regions are comparable to each other for the most part, but Region II is in a class by itself in terms of quality habitat in nearly every county, and hunters there helped to tag more than a third of the statewide harvest. Region II hunters harvested an impressive 14,197 birds in the spring of 2006.

In comparison, Region I kicked in a total of 8,100 turkeys followed by the 6,577 harvested in Region IV. Region III hunters also contributed 5,479 turkeys to the new record harvest.

Each fall, the turkey quota gun hunts in select counties and opportunities during the deer archery season in the same counties across most of state give Tennessee hunters another option at taking turkeys. As mentioned previously, these additional hunts have little effect on the overall turkey population and generally produce less than 2,000 birds in the overall harvest. In the fall of 2005, the hunts bagged 1,921 turkeys statewide.

During the 2005 fall quota hunts, Region II flexes its turkey muscles again. Of the 1,921 fall birds, Region II was responsible for 1,419 of them. The two top fall counties in Region II were Giles and Rutherford with 102 turkeys harvested in each. Region I hunters tagged 104 fall birds and Region III hunters tagged 169. Region IV hunters were second best on the fall hunts but far behind Region II with a take of 229 turkeys.

There are currently 65 counties in Tennessee that feature the fall hunts. There is a one-week hunt, usually held in November just in time to get that Thanksgiving bird, in all of the 65 counties. There’s also an additional five-day hunt in December in 24 of those counties.

THE BEST WMA TURKEY OPPORTUNITIES
The WMA hunts wouldn’t have been a major part of the 2006 comeback if not for the harvest at Fort Campbell. The military reserve normally leads the way on WMA hunts each year, and in 2006, Fort Campbell was far above the rest.