The Best Turkey Counties in Missouri: Franklin Led All 10 Springs

IThe answer

Ten springs, ten first-place finishes for Franklin County

The clearest feature of these records is Franklin's uninterrupted decade at the top. Through the regular spring hunts spanning 2016 to 2025, hunters in Franklin checked more turkeys each year than hunters in the remaining 113 counties. It led Missouri again in 2025 with 956 birds. For that year, the harvest report for 2025 from the Missouri Department of Conservation ranks Callaway next with 873, followed by Texas with 860. Franklin's decade-long lead over Texas amounts to 1,237 birds.

Some of Franklin's wins were close. Its smallest lead occurred in 2018: Franklin reported 709 birds, Texas reported 696, and the difference was 13. Those figures appear in the harvest report for 2018. Its largest lead occurred in 2020. Franklin reported 900 birds, a margin of 200 over Callaway's 700, as shown in the harvest report for 2020. The runner-up changed: Callaway occupied that position in five springs out of ten, Texas took second in four springs, while Saint Clair did so just once, during 2016.

Over ten seasons, Franklin contributed 2.2% of Missouri's 392,404 reported birds. That is about two and a half equal county shares, compared with the 0.9% each would receive if the total were divided evenly across 114 counties. The counties below Franklin sit close together. Third-place Callaway reported 7,177, while tenth-place Camden reported 5,850, a difference of just 1,327 birds across the decade. Greene shares 11th place with Ste. Genevieve County; each reported 5,788. Maries ranks 15th with 5,534, trailing Camden by 316 birds.

IITen-year line

Statewide harvest hit its low in 2022, then its high in 2025

Missouri's reported harvest changed sharply while Franklin kept its lead. Adding the county reports gives a regular-season tally that dropped from 44,207 birds for 2016 to 33,359 for 2022. It then climbed to 46,569 for 2025. That was the decade's highest spring total, exceeding the 2022 tally by 13,210 birds.

These records count reported kills; they cannot explain the changes in harvest. Weather conditions, the number of hunters afield and turkey abundance all affect the tally, and these data cannot sort out their separate effects. The records do show Franklin holding first place throughout those changes.

IIIThe youth map

Seven shared counties, three different counties on each list

The youth spring hunt in Missouri comes before the regular season. Under the department's rules for 2026, the youth hunt took place on April 11 and 12, for hunters 6 to 15 years old. The bag limit was one turkey, either a male or a bird showing a visible beard. The regular hunt came afterward, opening April 20 and closing May 10. Youth harvest accounts for a small tally. Statewide, the department's harvest tables for 2025 show 4,449 birds from the youth hunt, compared with 46,569 from the regular hunt. Our separate youth rankings combine a decade of reports and include only the 111 counties with reported youth harvest every season of that decade.

With 772 birds reported during youth hunts, Franklin tops that ranking as well as the regular-season ranking. The other six counties appearing in both top tens are Miller, Gasconade, Laclede, Osage, Callaway and Texas. Youth's top ten also includes Maries, Greene and Ste. Genevieve, which fall outside the regular top ten. In regular-season reports, Maries places 15th, while Greene shares 11th with Ste. Genevieve. Phelps, Camden and Macon make the regular top ten but fall outside youth's top ten.

Miller County illustrates how different the season rankings can be. Its regular-season position is 9th, with 5,997 birds, while its youth position is 2nd, with 714. That amounts to 11.9 youth-hunt birds per 100 birds from the regular hunt. Texas County's ratio is 8.5, based on 636 youth birds and 7,491 regular birds. Miller finished first without a tie for youth harvest: 74 birds in 2020, 73 in 2021 and 87 in 2022. These records provide no explanation. The places young hunters live and the places they can get hunting permission might help explain the pattern, but we tested neither possibility.

Youth harvest reports produce shifting rankings. Across the decade, Maries placed 7th with 595 birds and Greene placed 10th with 531, leaving a difference of 64. Looking only at 2025, Gasconade took first with 107 birds, followed by Osage with 106. Franklin topped the decade overall but finished fourth that year with 89. Five counties reached the top during the decade, either outright or through a tie: Franklin, Miller, Osage, Gasconade and Callaway. Callaway shared the lead with Franklin when each reported 105 birds in 2016.

IVBearded hens

Bearded hens account for 1.11% of spring birds

A beard is central to Missouri's spring turkey regulations. According to the department's turkey information for 2026, residents may harvest two turkeys, either males or birds showing visible beards. Its species information explains that some females have beards. Thus, a spring hen must have a beard to be legal. The agency tracks these birds in a harvest-table column labeled Bearded Hen.

Adding county reports across the decade yields 4,363 hens with beards out of 392,404 birds harvested during regular spring seasons, a share of 1.11%. From the opening spring to the final spring, bearded-hen harvest declined even as overall harvest increased: 528 hens were reported for 2016, compared with 371 for 2025. These hens also represent small shares within counties. Lawrence County had the largest share at 1.87%, with 64 hens out of 3,420 birds. No county's share exceeded 2%. Of the 956 birds Franklin reported for 2025, the department identifies 10 as bearded hens. Hunters should treat the rule mainly as a check before shooting, rather than a reason to target hens: the beard must be visible before pulling the trigger.

VMethod and limits

Harvest reports counted separately for each spring season

These figures count turkeys that hunters reported. Missouri requires hunters to report every turkey using Telecheck no later than 10 p.m. on the date they harvested the bird. The department posts final harvest counts for counties and season segments. We calculated separate totals for the regular spring season and youth season, including all weapons, for 2016 to 2025. Each of the 114 counties reported birds during the regular season every year.

County harvest depends on hunter participation, available hunting ground, county acreage and turkey abundance. Our calculations include no adjustment for public land or county area. Franklin's ranking therefore describes reported harvest alone. We did have to resolve a column mismatch. The department's regular-season table for 2021 places juvenile and hen figures in county rows opposite the order shown by the column headings and statewide Total row. We aligned those county figures with the statewide row. After that correction, county bearded-hen sums equal the statewide figure for every year of the decade.

VIIn the field

Begin your search with the seven shared counties

For a single county choice, pick Franklin. It led each spring of the decade, topped the combined youth harvest over that span, and reported 956 birds for 2025. The seven counties appearing in both top tens make a reasonable group for further research: Franklin, Miller, Gasconade, Laclede, Osage, Callaway and Texas. Their reported harvest puts them among the leaders in each season, but those counts measure neither hunting access nor your chances. For youth hunting, begin by considering Miller, Gasconade and Osage. Each reported a higher ratio of youth birds per 100 birds from regular hunts than Franklin: Miller's ratio was 11.9, Gasconade's was 10.9 and Osage's was 10.3, compared with Franklin's 8.8.

Below the top few counties, harvest totals are close. Use access to settle those choices. The department's 2026 season information says shooting hours close at 1 p.m. on public ground and at sunset on private ground. That difference matters if you have access to public land. Our paper on Missouri's two deer regions also identifies Franklin as one of the counties leading in deer harvest each year. Its harvest totals make it a consistent county for both species. Turkey counts show where hunters found success. They cannot tell you where an owner will give you permission to hunt.