Stearns County Thunderin' Toms

06/11/2026

Check out: Minnesota’s Turkey Hunt Sees Impressive Numbers Despite Slight Drop

This spring, Minnesota’s turkey hunters bagged over 15,000 birds, a solid third-highest harvest despite tricky weather. Glen Schmitt shares insights on a resilient turkey population and improving wetland conditions.

06/01/2026

Please see the flyer for our Jakes days event

04/30/2026

https://www.outdoornews.com/2026/04/30/minnesotas-early-turkey-kill-drops-from-2025-as-hunters-deal-with-poor-weekend-weather/

Minnesota’s spring turkey hunters did not catch a break with the weather during the early portion of the season, and harvest numbers so far seem to be reflecting that.

04/30/2026

https://www.outdoornews.com/2026/04/30/minnesota-9-year-old-harvests-a-top-three-tom-in-states-record-book/

Luella Malone's turkey weighed 24 pounds, had two beards measuring 11 and 11.5 inches, and spurs measuring 1-1⁄8 inches and 1-1⁄16 inches.

04/02/2026

What a blast all of us had at the Stearns County Thunderin' Toms 2026 Hunting Heritage Banquet. The banquet was held on 3-30-26. I want to say a big thank you, to all of those that came out to support this great event. A lot of us won prizes, shared stories, laughed, and had a great time. The food was great, and the venue was beautiful. Thank you to Nic, Chrissy, and the wonderful staff at The Great Blue Heron for hosting the event.
Also, I want to thank Al and Michele Haus for running this event. They put in hours of hard work into making this event a success. Also, many thank you's go out to the volunteers, and committee members for all of the hard work they did. From selling tickets, setup, to running the games, etc.

Another big thank you goes out to all the sponsors and those that donated items. This means a lot to the Stearns County Thunderin' Toms and to the success of the NWTF. Finally, a big thank you goes out to our NWTF members as well. You made the night so enjoyable. We look forward to doing this again in the spring of 2027. Now with this event behind us; let’s get ready to hunt some turkeys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

03/23/2026

It is that time of year again for the 2026 Hunting Heritage Banquet held on 3-30-26 at the The Great Blue Heron in Cold Spring. Here is the flyer to print out, fill out and mail in. Or a QR code to scan and fill out online.

03/16/2026

https://www.nwtf.org/content-hub/tracking-turkeys-in-minnesota-with-innovative-technology

The idea for this cross-state collaboration came from critically thinking about why turkey populations are seemingly doing very well in some areas of Minnesota and are struggling in other regions like southern Texas. By investigating the knowledge gaps involving wild turkey population density, abund...

03/04/2026

It is that time of year again for the 2026 Hunting Heritage Banquet held on 3-30-26 at the The Great Blue Heron in Cold Spring. Here is the flyer to print out, fill out, and mail in. Or a QR code to scan, and fill out online.