2021 Spring Turkey Overview
Another Spring Turkey season is behind us, and it appears the dog days of summer have set in a couple days before summer officially arrived.
We would like to thank everyone for a safe and enjoyable season. Reservations were smooth, feedback from the landowners and neighbors was positive and everyone had a choice of good farms to hunt.
This year members traveled from 28 states, which was up from 18 states in 2020. Missouri residents were by far the top state with over 100 hunters, Kansas second with 28, Arkansas third with 26 and Mississippi fourth with 10.
The total number of spring turkey hunters was up from 207 in 2020 to 218 in 2021. The turkey numbers have declined a bit over the past decade, but the Midwest still has some of the best turkey hunting in the country. The success ratio dropped from 1.5 birds per member in 2020 to 1.3 birds per member in 2021. 218 members harvested 284 toms, which is an impressive number anywhere.
Below are two junior members with their first tom.
Once again, many of our turkey hunters are casual and use spring turkey season to scout and become familiar with the maps and reservation system. This year, the average member only hunted 2 to 3 days and killing a turkey was not their primary goal.
On the other hand, to harvest 284 toms requires a separate group of relentless hunters with the never give up until all tags are filled attitude.
Tough man stats below:
174 members hunted one state, 38 hunted two states and 6 hunted all 3 states. Two members hunted 10 plus days without filling a tag, while one killed 4 toms in four days, and another killed 4 in 5 days. Six members hunted all 3 states attempting to achieve the “MAHA Slam”, which is filling 5 tags in one season. Two of the six filled 5 tags, one filled 4, one filled 3, one filled 2 and one filled 0. The two that harvested 5 toms hunted 10 plus days each and they both have completed the MAHA Slam 5 years straight. Wow that’s 50 toms! The member that attempted the MAHA Slam that did not fill a tag, originated the term MAHA Slam the first year we had land in Iowa, and he filled all 5 tags in IA, MO and KS. He has hunted with MAHA for 20 years and this is the first season he has not filled a tag.
One father son (junior) member team harvested 7 mature toms, another harvested 4 and a father, junior son, daughter, and wife team harvested 5 mature toms. Great family memories that we really enjoy seeing.
A first-year member killed an impressive bird that weighed 26 pounds 1 ounce, had 5 beards and 1 1/4″ spurs.
We would like to thank everyone that responded to our email requesting harvest numbers to calculate a total of birds harvested during the 2021 season. This feedback is helpful when it is time to renew leases. Success photos and stories are most gratifying. Keep them coming.
The coronavirus fears continue to fall, so hopefully things will get back to normal soon. The outdoors has been a great escape for a lot of people over the past 15 months. MAHA is doing well, and we wish everyone a safe and enjoyable off season. The MAHA Staff!
