Union County led the way
South Carolina hunters saw a slight decrease (5 percent) in the 2024 turkey harvest when compared to the Palmetto State’s 2023 numbers
A total of 7381 hunters reported at least one bird harvested. Of the 9752 overall harvested, 9184 were adult gobblers, and 568 were jakes.
Five hundred and thirty-one hunters killed their season limit of three turkeys, 1309 reported killing two birds, and 5541 harvested one turkey.
Ninety percent of the turkeys were harvested by South Carolina residents, and hunters from 35 other states and three Canadian provinces accounted for the other 10 percent.
Hunters from North Carolina made up the majority (46 percent) of non-resident harvests.
The vast majority, 91 percent, of South Carolina’s turkey harvest took place on private lands, while public lands accounted for 9 percent. This number makes sense, since WMA/public land makes up only about 8 percent of available turkey habitat in the state.
Most of the harvests (77 percent) took place in the morning, with 23 percent coming in the afternoon.
South Carolina’s top counties based on harvest per unit area of habitat, or what SCDNR refers to as turkeys per acre, were as follows:
- Union County
- Bamberg County
- Spartanburg County
- Marion County
- Florence County
South Carolina hunters are required to report their turkey harvests electronically. Hunters made the majority of their reports (84 percent) through SCDNR’s mobile app, Go Outdoors South Carolina. Nine percent reported through the web, and 7 percent made their reports with their phone and text.
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