Natalie Phelps Finnie Director of Illinois Department of Natural Resources | Official Website
Natalie Phelps Finnie Director of Illinois Department of Natural Resources | Official Website
Illinois hunters have set a new record in the 2024 spring turkey season, harvesting a total of 17,208 wild turkeys across the state. This surpasses both last year's total of 16,123 and the previous record of 16,569 from 2006. The top five counties contributing to this year’s harvest were Jo Daviess with 654 turkeys, Jefferson with 472, Marion with 435, Pope with 397, and Randolph with 395.
The youth turkey harvest also reached a new high this year with a total of 2,009 birds. This compares to the previous youth season record of 1,733 set in 2020 and last year's youth harvest of 1,309. Hunters purchased a total of 86,083 permits for this season compared to last year's figure of 80,642.
Spring turkey hunting was available in almost all counties across Illinois—100 out of the state's total of 102 counties. The regular season ran from April 8 through May 9 in the South Zone and from April 15 through May 16 in the North Zone. The youth spring turkey season took place on March 30-31 and April 6-7 statewide.
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