Prairie State Wire

Turkey hunters in Illinois harvested 292 wild turkeys during the 2024 fall firearm season, which took place from October 19 to October 27. This figure represents a 10% increase compared to the previous year's harvest. The record for turkey harvests was set in 2005 with 1,218 birds.

This year, a total of 1,756 regular fall firearm season permits were sold, slightly fewer than the 1,771 permits sold last year. The peak number of permits sold occurred in 2007 when hunters purchased 4,968 permits.

The hunting season was open in 56 out of Illinois' 102 counties. Jefferson County led the harvest with 17 turkeys, followed by Jasper and Marion counties with 16 each. Jo Daviess County reported a harvest of 13 turkeys and Cass County recorded a total of 12. Preliminary data indicates that female birds comprised approximately 57% of the harvest while male birds made up about 43%.

The table below provides preliminary county-by-county results for the fall gun turkey harvest in both 2023 and 2024:

- Adams: From two turkeys in 2023 to none in this year.

- Alexander remained consistent with four turkeys each year.

- Brown saw a decrease from two to one turkey.

- Calhoun increased from one to six turkeys.

- Carroll decreased from seven to four turkeys.

- Cass increased significantly from five to twelve turkeys.

Additional notable changes include Jackson County increasing its count from four to ten and Jasper doubling its numbers from eight to sixteen. Meanwhile, Jefferson saw an increase from nine to seventeen.

Overall, the total number of wild turkeys harvested across all participating counties rose from last year's count of 262 to this year's tally of 292.