ILLINOISDEPARTMENTOF NATURAL RESOURCES

J.B. Pritzker,
Governor|illinois.gov

Opportunities Remain to Participate in the 2022 Fall Turkey Seasons

by Luke Garver |  August 1, 2022 |  Recreation
A group of gray and black wild turkeys forage along a woodland edge.

Photo courtesy of Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

A hunter in camouflage gear carries a successful harvested wild turkey on his back while walking through a fallow agricultural field in the fall towards a pickup truck.
Photo by Patty Gillespie.

Although the relentless heat of summer seems to be never ending, the 2022 fall turkey hunting seasons are right around the corner. The Fall Archery Turkey season kicks off October 1 and, just three weeks later, the Fall Gun Turkey season begins on October 22. The archery season runs the concurrently with the Archery Deer season and concludes on January 15, 2023 (the season is closed during the Firearm Deer Seasons on Nov 18-20 and Dec 1-4, 2022). The fall gun season runs for 9 days and concludes on October 30. While the Fall Archery Turkey Season is open in all 102 counties, fall gun opportunities are only available in 56, being reserved for the counties with the highest turkey populations.

Interest in the Fall Gun Turkey Season continues to wane. Both permit sales and harvest totals are only about one-fifth of what they were 15 years ago. Still, each year more than 1,000 hunters participate in what was traditionally the most popular time to hunt turkeys. County permits are available either via lottery or over-the-counter and are very abundant. There are many state sites open to the season as well. Site-specific permits for those sites are available via lottery, however there are many sites which can be hunted with a county permit. Check out Hunt Illinois or our Digest of Hunting and Trapping Regulations to find out more.

Archery turkey hunting permit sales are down from their peak 12 to 15 years ago but have resurged the last few years and continue to hold strong. The archery season very accessible and public land opportunities exist in nearly every county in the state. Be sure to check Hunt Illinois or the Digest of Hunting and Trapping Regulations for sites in your area.

Luke Garver is the Wild Turkey Project Manager with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife Resources.

Share this Article

Submit a question for the author

Please complete the verification below to submit your question:

Explore Our Family of Websites

A link the Wildlife Illinois web site with advertisements for its four sections: Help, Sightings, Wildlife Identification, and Prevent Problems.
A link the Hunt Illinois web site.
A link the CICADA web site.
A link the Living with White-tailed Deer web site with advertisements for its three sections: ecology, management, and history.

Similar Reads

Birds, Hunting, Regulations
Two white swans with black beaks stand on a sheet of ice over a lake. In the background wild ducks swim on a open patch of water on the icy lake.

Counting Swans

February 2, 2026 by Patty Gillespie

A black and brown wild turkey basks in warm spring sunshine. The turkey is surrounded by green vegetation in a woodland. In the background is a fallen log.

Available Soon, the 2026 Fishing Regulations Guide

February 2, 2026 by Kathy Andrews Wright

An adult and youth hunter stand on the edge of an agricultural field. They both hold up a successfully harvested wild turkey. Both are wearing camouflage gear.

The Fun of Hunting

February 2, 2026 by Steven Beltran

A gray, black and whit bird perches upside down over the entrance of a cavity in a tree trunk with a seed in its mouth. In the background is green foliage.

Nuthatches: Feisty seed hiders and insect eaters

February 2, 2026 by Sheryl DeVore

A close-up of groupings of yellow seeds on a green leafy tree.
A brown and tan quail walks across a snowy grassland.
A shed antler from a white-tailed deer rests against a fallen log nestled in amongst leaf litter on the forest floor.

Nature’s Seasonal Events

February 2, 2026 by Carla Rich Montez

A person wearing yellow shirt walks through a prairie under an overcast sky. In the background is a horizon line of trees.
An adult male white-tailed deer runs through a harvested cornfield. In the background is a grassland. Overlapping the photo in the top right is the Illinois Department of Natural Resources 100th Anniversary Celebratory logo.