With turkey numbers being stable or increasing in most of Pennsylvania, there are several reasons to be optimistic about the upcoming fall turkey hunting season.
Turkey season opens Nov. 1, and hunters can pursue either a hen or gobbler.
“Overall, most of our Wildlife Management Units (WMUs) are stable or increasing in population numbers,” Reina Tyl, wild turkey biologist for the Pennsylvania Game Commission, said.
The agency has been conducting summer sighting surveys involving the public for the past six years.
“Since 2019, we’ve had pretty good hatches and especially before 2025. In 2020 to 2024 we saw fairly good production, I think nearly three poults per hen or above three poults per hen over the last four of those five years,” she said.
The poults per hen values within WMUs ranged from a low of 1.66 to a high of 4.75 this past summer, so there was a fair amount of variation across the state.
“So, this year, the statewide metric is down a bit, so people might not be seeing as big of brood flocks during the fall season this year, but I would say that production is still not bad,” Tyl said. “But I do think that the wet spring we had during May and a bit into June, probably played a big role.”
Those are the times when birds are nesting with young poults.
“We could have seen a lot of nest failures and then potentially those early hatchling poults could have had some pretty challenging conditions early on,” she said.
The turkey population in most WMUs is stable or increasing; however, she said indices from three WMUs (3D, 4C, and 5B in eastern Pennsylvania) indicate a population decline.
Reina Tyl, the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s wild turkey biologist, heads out of the woods after a successful turkey hunt.
Pennsylvania’s 2025 fall turkey seasons
The season lengths are set in a manner not to negatively impact the turkey population.
“That’s why we have different season lengths throughout the state. A lot of it is based on turkey population trends in different wildlife management units and harvest levels that we think those populations are able to withstand and still be sustained,” Tyl said.
The fall turkey season starts Nov. 1 and the season length varies across the state for different WMUs. The Sundays in the middle of each season are open to hunting.
In WMUs 5A and 5B, the season ends Nov. 4. In 1B, 3D, 4C and 4E, the season ends Nov. 8.
In 1A, 2G, 3A, 4A, 4B and 4D, hunters get two weeks to hunt turkeys through Nov. 15.
Other parts of the state have a longer turkey season. In WMUs 2A, 2F, 3B and 3C, the season is Nov. 1-15 and Nov. 26-28 allowing hunters to be out during Thanksgiving week.
WMUs 2B, 2C, 2D and 2E have the longest season. It includes Nov. 1-21 and Nov. 26-28.
Fall turkey season is closed in WMUs 5C and 5D in southeastern Pennsylvania.
Wild turkeys eat a variety of berries, nuts and acorns in the fall.
How to find turkeys in the fall
For those looking to get a turkey this fall, she said hunters should be scouting woodlots and agricultural areas.
“Try to figure out brood flock movements, where they’re hanging out, figure out their food sources, water sources they may be using, as well as roosting sites. Focus on trying to locate those flocks and break them up and then call them back to you is a good strategy,” she said.
Using a variety of yelps, clucks and purrs to imitate the hens and younger birds has been effective.
“Try to reorganize that group back to where you’re at through a variety of different calls is what you want to focus on,” she said.
“If you are trying to target gobblers in the fall, you might have to focus a little bit more on their movements. They will still respond to gobbling, so you could use gobbling calls to try to identify where those males are hanging out as well.”
Tyl said if you’re not familiar with movement patterns of turkeys on your property or you are trying to locate flocks on public land, start by identifying areas with abundant food resources. Early in the season this could be leftover soft mast (i.e., berries) from the summer. Areas with abundant acorns and other hard mast sources are always good to key in on.
“If you can find where the flock is roosting, setting up between the roost site and their primary foraging areas is a recipe for success,” she said.
Christopher Smiley kneels with his daughter, Samantha, after a successful fall turkey hunt.
Christopher Smiley, 48, of Falls Creek, Jefferson County has enjoyed hunting turkeys for decades in the spring and fall.
He also enjoys hunting gobblers in other states including completing two National Wild Turkey Federation grand slams. That is when a hunter harvests the four most common subspecies of wild turkey in the United States including the Eastern, Rio Grande, Merriam and Osceola.
More: Pa. young woman, father travel United States to get grand slams in turkey hunting
For fall turkey hunting, he remembers when his family and friends would hunt in a group coming into a woodlot from different directions.
When a hunter found the flock, he would try to scare them by running towards them to split up the flock.
When the turkeys started calling to each other to regroup, the hunters would use their turkey calls to attract the birds to them. “It’s almost as fun as spring gobbler season,” he said.
The young birds are vocal, and he enjoys hearing their different sounds as they regroup. “The fall noise that comes from a hen or the young one is actually a lot neater to hear I think in the fall than in the spring, just because of the idea of why they are calling.”
In the fall, the flock is trying to regroup. In the spring, birds are talking to each other more for mating purposes.
In the fall, when a flock gets split up, Smiley said he waits until he hears one starting to talk before he starts calling.
“In the fall, you want to mimic that call. If that hen yelps three or four times, call right back three or four times,” he said.
In the fall, he uses kiki run and long, drawn out hen yelp types of call sounds.
“Kiki run is just unbelievable for a lost bird,” he said about hearing the birds call naturally. “We’ve enjoyed it so much for years,” he said.
Christopher Smiley and his father Robert with two turkeys they harvested while archery hunting.
If a hunter knows the patterns of where a turkey feeds, he said he’s had luck just sitting in the woods waiting for the turkeys to move toward the fields to eat.
“They are so repetitive. They’re doing same thing almost every day,” Smiley said.
For those archery hunting deer when it overlaps with turkey season, Tyl said there are opportunities to hunt both big game species.
“If you’re deer hunting and you want to bring a call along, just in case you have an opportunity or you run into some turkeys, certainly that could be a strategy.”
Smiley is one of them. He’s involved in archery deer season, but he has had luck getting a fall turkey with his compound bow. He carries a turkey call with him when archery and turkey seasons overlap.
In recent years, the Game Commission reports shotguns have been the primary implement used during the fall seasons. On average during the 2021-24 seasons, 77% of turkeys harvested in the fall were taken by shotgun. About 16% of the fall harvest across those same years is attributed to crossbows and 6% to vertical bows.
Wild turkeys try to stay in flocks during the fall hunting season. Hunters use turkey calls to try to entice turkeys looking to regroup.
Studying wild turkeys
The Game Commission has several ongoing wild turkey studies.
There is a hen study designed to improve the agency’s knowledge of hen survival rates, reproductive success, movements and habitat use.
“This study will also test and improve our decision model for making fall turkey hunting season recommendations,” Tyl said.
A study is estimating gobbler crippling loss during the spring turkey season and is evaluating hunter attitudes and opinions regarding a second tag during the spring season. “This study will also give us insight into gobbler movements, causes of death, and survival rates,” Tyl said.
The agency is studying the impact of diseases in wild turkey regarding their survival and productivity.
With the ongoing studies, there are turkeys running around with transmitters and leg bands that hunters may encounter. If a hunter shoots a turkey with a transmitter or leg band, the agency asks hunters to follow the instructions on the band to report their harvest.
Before the season begins, Smiley recommends scouting for flocks, especially where there is leftover corn from a harvested field and where there are acorns and nuts.
“With these warm days, they’re still eating grasshoppers and bugs and everything else that goes along with their diet,” he said.
When it comes to fall turkey hunting, Smiley said, “It’s like anything else: Get your rear-end out there, do a little bit of homework and you’ll be rewarded one way or another.”
Tyl said, “Fall turkey hunting can provide an interesting window into brood flock dynamics and the social behaviors of wild turkeys. Witnessing interactions between hens and their young of the year, and the pecking orders within these groups, can be incredibly fascinating.”
Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website’s homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook @whipkeyoutdoors.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Pennsylvania’s turkey season opens Nov. 1 and here’s how to find them
