MN Turkey 2017

You only need to apply for a spring lottery turkey license if you want to hunt during one of the first two hunting time periods (April 12-18, or April 19-25,) and you are an adult. Everyone else can purchase a license over the counter starting in mid-March.
If you want to apply for a lottery license:
 You must submit your application by Friday, Jan. 27, 2017.
 If we draw your application, we will mail you a 2017 Spring Wild Turkey postcard as your winning notification by mid-February. Then you can purchase your license starting March 1.
• If you do not receive a winner’s notice, we did not draw your application. You can still hunt turkeys by purchasing an over-the-counter license for any one of the last four time periods (which run April 26-May 31), or you can try to purchase a surplus license for one of the first two time periods if any are available. Surplus licenses go on sale in mid-March. You may also purchase an archery license over-the-counter if you choose not to buy a firearms license, and these archery licenses are good for the entire season (April 12 – May 31).

MN results are in . I pulled my Season A tag

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/licenses/lotteries/turkey_spring.html

Victory is mine!!! B season tag, 2nd year in a row.

Here’s hoping the weather cooperates, but at least I got the tag.

Thanks for posting this Hoyt.

Grouse

Question…
What is the reasoning behind the 1 week seasons? It is just to keep pressure down on the public ground? Surely there are less people chasing GOBBLERS in the spring than DEER in the fall? They worried about over crowding?

It’s to manage the hunting pressure and to limit the number of hunters (and therefore the harvest, I suppose) during the prime early weeks.

I know some of the southern MN guys would probably disagree, but in my hunting area we don’t have huge numbers. Having a free-for-all would mean bedlam on opening day and likely too many birds killed in the first week. Anybody who couldn’t hunt those opening days would be hosed because whatever birds were left after a week would be skittish as all getout.

This is the 2nd year of the “new” system in MN and I love it. Manage the early season pressure, but allow “second chance” hunting late in the season and OTC tags for guys who don’t win an early season tag. Everybody gets to hunt, pressure and harvest are managed.

Grouse

Pulled A season tag for 4th year in row.. I have been working down in Rushford on their new school and each morning I get there I can hear birds gobbling on the hillside. Just last week I seen a hen walking thru the woods talking a little bit and their was a group of over a dozen toms and jakes gobbling and strutting headed towards her direction!!

Took me two years to get season A permit for my area. Our birds are just coming back a little. Should be a fun spring

Not sure i’m a fan of the new rules yet giving it another spring see how the hunting goes.

Did anyone apply for A or B and NOT get a tag? If so, what area?

Grouse

My dad didn’t get pulled for Season A this is his second year not getting a tag either through lottery.

The last two springs I had to buy surplus.

Interesting. Mind sharing what zone/section (whatever they call them)?

My dad got a 508 B season tag as well, this is our 2nd year in a row drawing the B season and we’ve had 0 preference points both times.

We had a streak of about 4 years of terrible weather during either the A and/or the B season, so I wonder if a lot of guys in our section didn’t either quit or started to go later to get better conditions? 4 years ago, we got almost flooded out, we had hard, heavy rain each of the 4 days that I could hunt.

Grouse

Zone 510

Talk to both my landowners and they are starting to see a few birds showing up.