2025 Turkey Season IN - April 3

The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) sets the hunting regulations for wild turkeys in South Carolina, and there have been numerous changes recently. New for 2025 SCDNR reduced the bag limit per hunter to two turkeys per season, a strategic move that counters the decline of wild turkeys. Turkey hunting season opens April 3, hunters may only harvest one gobbler during the first seven days of the season, and juvenile jakes are no longer legal to harvest.

April 3, 2025 Opening Day Harvest

The April 3 opening date is the latest ever for the Lowcountry, which for decades was set at March 15. What this means on the landscape is that the woods have already greened up, because the cooler temperatures of Spring have transitioned to growing season conditions with warmer overnights. It was a balmy 72-degrees on April 3, but no atmospheric conditions can stop a turkey hunting enthusiast on opening day. With a whippoorwill sounding off in the last bit of darkness, I heard my first gobble from a roost tree at 6:42 AM and I quietly walked close to his position.

Not knowing if the bird would fly down and immediately be in front of my location, meant that I was tense right from the start. Not making any sound meant that I needed to be still, and blend in with the ticket of vines and trees that I was sitting beside. When I heard a hen call in the same area as the roosted gobbler I know that meant there would be a competition for his attention. When they both flew down in the opposite direction from me, I knew the hunt just got tougher. I called my hen yelp turkey call and the gobbler answered right away, and this repeated several times, but he did not come straight away.

Instead the hens led the gobbler in a circular path behind my position so that they could all look for the hen they were hearing. This is a tried and true tactic turkeys use and I was ready for it, and thankfully was hidden well enough that I could turn 180-degrees from my original set up in order the shoot the gobbler at 40-paces when his circular path brought him in range. Though the shot was at 7:25 the hens did leave for a while and I got to watch some bonus Spring turkey behavior before collecting my opening day tom. 

To view past blog entries about the Turkey season opening day click on 2024 (Last Day) - 2020 - 2016- 2015 - 2014 - 2013 - 2012 - 2010 - 2009