Illinois Historic Preservation Agency
03/08/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 03/09/2026 14:52
Illinois hunters harvest 882 turkeys during fall archery season
SPRINGFIELD - Hunters in Illinois harvested a preliminary statewide total of 882 wild turkeys during the 2025-2026 fall archery turkey season, according to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The total compares with last year's record harvest of 1,045 birds and the five-year average of 824 birds harvested.
This season 26,787 permits were sold, excluding landowner permits, compared with 27,422 permits sold during the 2024-2025 season. The fall archery turkey season dates were Oct. 1, 2025, through Jan. 18, 2026, and all 102 counties in Illinois were open for hunting.
Harvest reports were 60% male birds and 40% female birds, compared with 51% males and 49% females reported during the previous season. A total of 67% of hunters used crossbows, 33% used compound bows, and less than 1% used traditional bows.
The top five counties for fall archery wild turkey harvest this season were Fayette, 33; Jefferson, 32; Marion, 24; Macoupin, 22; and Jackson, 20. The table below shows the preliminary 2025-2026 county-by-county fall archery turkey harvest results with comparable totals for 2024-2025.
| County | 2025-2026 | 2024-2025 |
| Adams | 12 | 15 |
| Alexander | 8 | 1 |
| Bond | 11 | 21 |
| Boone | 5 | 5 |
| Brown | 3 | 9 |
| Bureau | 7 | 15 |
| Calhoun | 9 | 16 |
| Carroll | 8 | 12 |
| Cass | 12 | 17 |
| Champaign | 2 | 6 |
| Christian | 10 | 9 |
| Clark | 11 | 4 |
| Clay | 10 | 19 |
| Clinton | 12 | 13 |
| Coles | 5 | 13 |
| Crawford | 12 | 8 |
| Cumberland | 6 | 4 |
| Dekalb | 2 | 3 |
| DeWitt | 2 | 3 |
| Douglas | 1 | 2 |
| Edgar | 6 | 4 |
| Edwards | 7 | 6 |
| Effingham | 15 | 16 |
| Fayette | 33 | 37 |
| Ford | 0 | 0 |
| Franklin | 13 | 7 |
| Fulton | 17 | 14 |
| Gallatin | 3 | 3 |
| Greene | 3 | 6 |
| Grundy | 2 | 5 |
| Hamilton | 5 | 8 |
| Hancock | 13 | 17 |
| Hardin | 4 | 7 |
| Henderson | 6 | 2 |
| Henry | 11 | 10 |
| Iroquois | 10 | 17 |
| Jackson | 20 | 7 |
| Jasper | 6 | 9 |
| Jefferson | 32 | 28 |
| Jersey | 9 | 9 |
| Jo Daviess | 16 | 23 |
| Johnson | 15 | 16 |
| Kane | 1 | 0 |
| Kankakee | 0 | 11 |
| Kendall | 1 | 0 |
| Knox | 13 | 12 |
| Lake | 0 | 3 |
| LaSalle | 13 | 15 |
| Lawrence | 2 | 4 |
| Lee | 9 | 22 |
| Livingston | 1 | 4 |
| Logan | 7 | 3 |
| Macon | 5 | 6 |
| Macoupin | 22 | 19 |
| Madison | 12 | 18 |
| Marion | 24 | 24 |
| Marshall | 4 | 8 |
| Mason | 9 | 15 |
| Massac | 2 | 5 |
| McDonough | 5 | 2 |
| McHenry | 7 | 17 |
| McLean | 11 | 9 |
| Menard | 4 | 9 |
| Mercer | 8 | 10 |
| Monroe | 7 | 10 |
| Montgomery | 16 | 21 |
| Morgan | 7 | 6 |
| Moultrie | 7 | 6 |
| Ogle | 6 | 17 |
| Peoria | 17 | 18 |
| Perry | 8 | 14 |
| Piatt | 2 | 3 |
| Pike | 12 | 25 |
| Pope | 8 | 6 |
| Pulaski | 5 | 3 |
| Putnam | 9 | 3 |
| Randolph | 13 | 19 |
| Richland | 6 | 3 |
| Rock Island | 12 | 5 |
| Saline | 10 | 7 |
| Sangamon | 13 | 22 |
| Schuyler | 13 | 11 |
| Scott | 2 | 1 |
| Shelby | 10 | 15 |
| St. Clair | 9 | 13 |
| Stark | 1 | 1 |
| Stephenson | 6 | 20 |
| Tazewell | 6 | 12 |
| Union | 14 | 5 |
| Vermilion | 11 | 10 |
| Wabash | 5 | 3 |
| Warren | 2 | 2 |
| Washington | 13 | 8 |
| Wayne | 19 | 13 |
| White | 4 | 5 |
| Whiteside | 10 | 18 |
| Will | 9 | 15 |
| Williamson | 16 | 14 |
| Winnebago | 11 | 17 |
| Woodford | 9 | 12 |
| Total | 882 | 1,045 |
Illinois Historic Preservation Agency published this content on March 08, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on March 09, 2026 at 20:52 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]