SC WMA harvest

WMAs accounted for 9 percent of SC turkey harvest

South Carolina has plenty of public lands available on the state’s WMAs, but it only makes up about 7 percent of the total turkey habitat in the state. Therefore, it should be expected that the harvest totals on WMAs would be smaller than that on private lands. And that’s exactly the case.

Approximately 91 percent of all turkeys killed in South Carolina during the 2023 season were harvested on private lands. The remaining 9 percent were killed on WMAs.

This number shows that the harvest on public land actually outperformed what the available habitat would leave wildlife biologists to expect.

A total of 868 turkeys were killed on the state’s WMAs, including 80 jakes and 788 gobblers.

Sumter National Forest dominated, with a total of 274 turkeys killed (24 jakes and 250 gobblers). Francis Marion National Forsest was second with a total of 194 killed (16 jakes, 178 gobblers), 34 turkeys, all gobblers were killed on Woodbury WMA, and 25 were killed on Sand Hills State Forest WMA (1 jake, 24 gobblers).