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Our highest priority is the well-being of the citizens of Texas. If you plan to hunt during this uncertain health situation, outdoor areas are good for social distancing. But you must follow the latest local laws and best practices for reducing the spread of the virus.
We recommend that you hunt only with people living under your roof, bring all the food and drink you'll need, sleep in a tent or your vehicle, carry plenty of hand sanitizer and use it. If you’ve been sick in the 2 weeks prior to your hunt, stay home. As always, safety first.
And with safety in mind, we’ve increased precautions for public Drawn Hunts on WMAs and state parks. No on-site standby drawings will be conducted for the remainder of the season. Drawn-hunt winners will not be affected for now.
Spring wildflowers are coming up, which means spring turkey season is coming up – and the forecast is excellent.
Jason Hardin, Wild Turkey Program Leader, says we can expect a lot of jakes this season, and there are plenty of toms still around. Jakes are far less wary than mature turkeys, making this a good year to take a new turkey hunter out to get that first bird. Watch the short video, Spring Turkey Season to see how to tell the difference between a jake, a tom and a hen.
Rio Grande turkey bag limit is 4 birds, and spring general seasons are:
- South Zone: 3/21 - 5/3
- North Zone: 4/4 - 5/17
- Special 1 Gobbler Bag Limit (10 counties): 4/1 - 4/30
Eastern turkey has a limit of 1 gobbler, and general season is 4/22 - 5/14. Eastern turkey hunters MUST check their harvested turkey online or with the free My Texas Hunt Harvest app.
Refer to your Outdoor Annual for youth-only dates, the Spring Zone Map, and required tagging information. Check county listings for special bag limits and regulations for individual counties.
For more resources, visit our Turkey in Texas webpage.
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Here's what you need to hunt wild turkey:
NEW:
- Proof of sex of your harvest no longer needs to remain attached to the turkey, but you must keep those parts (beard and spurs) with your harvested gobbler as proof of sex until the bird reaches its final destination.
- On-site registration for walk-in hunts is easier – you can now use the My Texas Hunt Harvest app instead of the paper form (which is still available).
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Talking Turkey, an episode of our Under the Texas Sky podcast, tells how Texas wild turkeys nearly disappeared, but were rescued by conservation management. It explores the 3 subspecies of wild turkeys in Texas, turkey harems, and how to pull off a good turkey call. Hunting and cooking pro tips are also revealed! Find it wherever you get your podcasts and on our website.
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Working with the National Wild Turkey Federation and other partners, we continue to move Eastern wild turkeys into East Texas. This winter, we restocked 80 birds at two sites along White Oak Creek in Franklin and Titus Counties. We hope to receive a few more birds this spring from Missouri and North Carolina, but that will wrap up restocking efforts until trapping season begins again in December. We continue to evaluate new sites near the Neches and Sulfur Rivers.
This winter, our staff moved about 140 Rio Grande wild turkeys into the Trinity River watershed in Kaufman and Navarro Counties. The Trinity River marks the western edge of the Eastern wild turkey’s historic range, as well as the eastern edge of the Rio’s historic range. As with the Eastern wild turkey, we hope to saturate our Trinity River focal landscape with Rios over the next few years.
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