I’ve noticed the 2 birds Ive gotten so far had little strutting wing wear just the front few wing feathers showed little wear. It would seem by this time in April in past years they would have had more even wear by now. For the last several years it seemed to me the prime breeding period has shifted into to late May now.

2 years ago the hens were still in the trees at the seasons end when you would think they would be on the nest by then.

Check your birds if you will I’d be curious of where other States birds are at on this. So far SD and WI both had minimal wear on the wingtips for this late in the season.

Your season doesn't start until Monday.

Interesting. My son hunted Sunday morning and had about 20 birds in shotgun range jakes and a few hens and one mature Tom. He seen no strutting and never heard a gobble. I was down work at the main ranch shop and heard gobbling all morning. He was in a canyon with a lot of cedar but couldn't get a clean shot at the Tom. In and out with other birds so no clean shot and apparently, he was muffled out from sounds where he was at in a blind.

I have three Jakes and three hens hanging out around the house. I heard them gobbling all morning and saw one strutting this morning. They first showed up Saturday. One hen and jake split off from the others and you see them by themselves.

They were right on schedule here. Started strutting in late February. Dragging their wings all day long thruout March....continuing to present date.

All the turkeys shot down here had definitely been strutting hard, but like Swamp said, they’ve been at it since late February. To be honest I’m surprised they can still fly.
Every turkey shot we saw strutting before being shot.

The Black Hills opens on the 27th this year in years past everything opened around second weekend.

Granddaughter killed a tom with 1 1/4 spurs on WI youth season, 4/13, very little wing tip wear. I attributed that to the rainy spring, nothing but mud to rub against.

Mine opened the 13th??? You sure?

Prairie units open the 13th the Black Hills National forest opens the 27th WY opens later this year also.

yes hen have been sitting later and later, these past few years . small birds going into fall,

Got to shoot the old dominant strutters instead of the subordinate ones, put a scope on your shotgun so you can check stuff like that out along with beard & spur length before shooting them

Ha...I was thinking this too, but you went ahead and said it! Lol

No scope, but I carry binos.

The 2 year old bird I shot in Central Forest of Wisconsin on April 20 had heavy wing wear. Not a lot of fields or open areas and birds like to strut on the roads prior to the seasons opening. He was in full strut by my decoy for about 15 minutes before I shot him. Also heard very little gobbling during 7 days in the woods. On another note I was surprised by how few ticks I picked up, only three, I expected a lot more after mild winter and early spring. Also saw a fisher, bear, wolf and couple coyotes.

Run into the smaller ticks no wood ticks last week around LaCrosse.

"Turkey wing tips wear" I wasn't aware Turkeys wore wing tips. As fast as they run I thought they only wore Nike's.

Tip wear was quite heavy.