Tennessee turkey hunters again posted another successful spring season as the harvest for 2011 nears 34,000 as reports continued to trickle into the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

 

The spring turkey statewide season came to a close on May 15.  The harvest number stands at 33,968. The harvest is below the 2010 record harvest of more than 37,000 birds, but this year’s harvest ranks as the state’s third highest all-time.

 

“It was another strong year for our turkey harvest,” said Gray Anderson, TWRA Turkey Program Coordinator. "We can’t expect to have record harvests every year, but we are at a stable point.

 

“We had a little less than 90 percent of the harvest being gobblers versus jakes this spring. This tells us our hunters are getting mature birds and we have a healthy population.”

 

Maury County again was the top county with 949 birds being harvested. Greene County also had a strong year finishing second with a harvest of 896.

 

Dickson County, a past leader for the spring season, was third with 852. Rounding out the top 10 counties were Montgomery 821, Sumner 774, Rutherford 710, Henry 709, Hardin 628, Hickman 613, and Hardeman 609.