Illinois spring turkey hunters harvest record number of wild turkeys, totals down in Lawrence County area

Illinois hunters harvested a preliminary record total of 20,821 wild turkeys during the 2026 spring turkey season, surpassing the previous record of 18,189 birds harvested in 2025.

The top counties for turkey harvest during the 2026 season were Jefferson and Jo Daviess counties, tied with 646 birds harvested; followed by Marion, 530; Pike, 525; and Wayne, 464.

Locally, Lawrence County saw a 40 turkey decrease from the 215 in 2025.

Surrounding counties were also down from the previous year

                        2026     2025                                

Jasper              234       208                    

Crawford          269       242             

Edwards           116       105                       

Clark                 310       241

This year, hunters purchased 94,704 permits compared to 89,580 last year. This year’s total included a record youth spring turkey season harvest of 2,326 birds compared to 2,099 birds in 2025.

A total of 70,158 individual hunters purchased permits for the 2026 spring turkey season. Preliminary figures indicate approximately 22% of permits sold were filled this year, compared to 20.3% last year.

Spring turkey hunting was open in 100 of Illinois’ 102 counties.