Curious what the 2025 turkey season is shaping up to look like? Our inaugural Strut Report taps into leading turkey researchers and passionate turkey hunters to paint the picture of this year’s turkey hunting prospects.

The 2025 Turkey Season

Dr. Mike Chamberlain continues to conduct innovative research into all things wild turkey. He recently let us know what’s been going on with wild turkeys and how the 2025 season might look.

“Depending on the region, populations in a lot of the South appear to be in one of two phases,” says Dr. Chamberlain. “Either they’re still declining, slowly, or they are stable. What you see across some states, such as Arkansas, Georgia, and Louisiana, where you saw fairly precipitous decline, which prompted agencies to make a number of regulations changes, in those states, it appears that populations have stabilized. We see stable populations in much of the upper Midwest, too, such as in Michigan and Wisconsin.

“If you look at Arkansas and Louisiana, specifically, harvest has actually started to trend up, which is great. So it appears that those populations have potentially reached their low point and now they’re starting to recover a little bit.

“In other states, it appears that populations are doing quite well,” says Dr. Chamberlain. “Virginia, for instance, is one state where harvest has continued to trend upwards and all signs point to things being okay. Of course, some states are still declining, like in South Carolina for instance. This just speaks to the complexity that agencies are dealing with.”

2025 Turkey Hunting Tips

We reached out to many of our turkey hunting ambassadors to get insight into how they are approaching the 2025 wild turkey season. Here’s what they gave us.

Weather

“Inclement weather affects the hunter as well as the hunted, so consider what measures turkeys will take to avoid or minimize the weather’s influence. For example, wet weather makes birds heavy. They often seek open areas to better protect themselves from predators knowing it’ll take longer to get airborne for an escape. Or during windy conditions, seek out the leeward side of a ridge system or use canyons and deep ravines where the wind may be subdued.” – Dave Owens, The Pinhoti Project

“Rain can really shut gobblers down especially if it’s accompanied by high winds and cool/cold temperatures. However, nothing seems to make turkeys more visible than rainy days since they often leave cover for open fields. 

“We take advantage of that behavior by adjusting our strategy. Instead of getting soaked in the field, we’ll hop in a vehicle and drive around to glass for turkeys in open areas. If we can find them on public land that’s great, but we often see turkeys in fields on private land, so we’ll knock on doors to gain permission. It’s a proven tactic that has helped us kill gobblers even on the dreariest of days.” – Greg Clements, The Hunting Public

Favorite Terrain

“My favorite type of terrain to hunt is forested hill country. The hills allow for additional cover when trying to make strategic moves on gobblers and calling a gobbler through the timber is just an overall better experience. For me, not being able to see the gobbler until he is in range provides much more excitement and anticipation than watching a gobbler strut his way across a huge field to my position.” – Shane Simpson, Shane Simpson Hunting

“The big hardwoods of the South. There’s just something about hearing a gobble in the hardwoods that gives me chills. When they come up through the hardwoods screaming, it sounds like logging chains rattling it gets so loud. They are some of the toughest turkeys I’ve ever hunted, so the reward is that much sweeter when you finally can catch up to one and fool him at his own game.” –  Phillip Culpepper, Hunt Club

Favorite Turkey Hunting Days

“It’s hard to beat opening day regardless of where you’re at, but if I had to hand pick 3 or 4 days to hunt in Georgia it would be the last week of April. The birds seem to be still pretty vocal but also looking for the last few hens. They just seem like they work to calling better. I love to cover ground and run-and-gun, so typically during this time frame I’ve had the most opportunity at getting a bird to respond and have him finish the deed more times than not.” –  Phillip Culpepper, Hunt Club

“Opening day is often my favorite day to hunt Missouri. Mostly, because of tradition but also because of un-pressured birds. If I were to pick one day of the season though, I would take a look at the forecast of the first week and look for a warmer day, low wind speed and clear skies to hunt. Those types of days seem to be the ones with the most activity.” – Shawn Luchtel, Heartland Bowhunter

“In my home state of Minnesota, or anywhere in the upper Midwest for that matter, the late season (mid-to-late May) is my favorite time to hunt. Temperatures are milder, and the weather patterns have usually stabilized to the point that most days are relatively calm and sunny. Perfect hunting conditions in my opinion.” – Shane Simpson, Shane Simpson Hunting

“The entire month of May. Gobblers are lonely because flocks have broken up and the majority of hens are on the nest. We do very well out West in early May. This is also prime time to hunt the Midwest in places like KS, IA, MN, SD, and MO.” – Aaron Warbritton, The Hunting Public

“My roots are in Mississippi; the best hunting usually starts there around the first week of April. This is the best time to have the ‘real’ turkey hunting experience. That’s about the time they begin their nesting cycle. Not sitting on nests, but they’re starting to lay eggs, and therefore the middle of the day starts to get really good as hens leave to lay their eggs. They usually leave the gobbler behind or try to ditch him, and he’ll be looking for her to court.” – Jordan Blissett, Speak The Language podcast

Top Turkey Hunting Tips

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