I am going to make an educated guess that our beautiful Saturday on April 6 had a lot to do with the total harvest of turkeys for Illinois’ two youth hunt weekends being up from 2018.
Here is the breakdown from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources:
Here’s an update on the 2019 Illinois Youth Turkey Season from the IDNR Division of Wildlife Resources:
Youth turkey hunters harvested a preliminary total of 1,364 birds during the 2019 Illinois Youth Turkey Season. In 2018, a total of 1,143 turkeys were taken. The record total was in 2017 when 1,531 turkeys were harvested. The dates for this year’s season were March 30-31 and April 6-7. This year, a total of 4,994 youth turkey permits were issued, including 129 permits for special hunt areas. In 2018, 5,253 permits were issued, including 106 for special hunt areas. The top five counties for harvest during this year’s youth season were Fayette (44), Jefferson (42), Pike (42), Randolph (39), and Marion (34).
For more information on turkey hunting in Illinois: https://www.dnr.illinois.gov/hunting/Pages/TurkeyHunting.aspx
The table below shows Illinois Youth Turkey Season preliminary harvest figures by county, with numbers from 2018 and 2019.
County 2019 2018 ADAMS 24 32 ALEXANDER 13 13 BOND 16 7 BOONE 8 6 BROWN 15 15 BUREAU 19 14 CALHOUN 20 15 CARROLL 6 9 CASS 24 20 CHAMPAIGN 2 1 CHRISTIAN 4 3 CLARK 18 15 CLAY 22 13 CLINTON 10 12 COLES 3 3 CRAWFORD 20 13 CUMBERLAND 4 5 DEKALB 2 0 DEWITT 4 7 EDGAR 0 3 EDWARDS 10 11 EFFINGHAM 18 13 FAYETTE 44 33 FORD 1 0 FRANKLIN 20 16 FULTON 30 22 GALLATIN 14 23 GREENE 16 18 GRUNDY 3 1 HAMILTON 31 24 HANCOCK 32 25 HARDIN 4 0 HENDERSON 11 9 HENRY 17 9 IROQUOIS 13 8 JACKSON 21 28 JASPER 12 7 JEFFERSON 42 31 JERSEY 17 14 JO DAVIESS 31 31 JOHNSON 20 9 KANKAKEE 6 2 KENDALL 2 0 KNOX 28 22 LAKE 1 0 LASALLE 5 5 LAWRENCE 9 13 LEE 9 8 LIVINGSTON 2 3 LOGAN 2 2 MACON 1 0 MACOUPIN 31 26 MADISON 20 11 MARION 34 28 MARSHALL 9 6 MASON 13 11 MASSAC 7 4 MCDONOUGH 10 5 MCHENRY 13 10 MCLEAN 5 2 MENARD 11 6 MERCER 28 26 MONROE 12 12 MONTGOMERY 16 14 MORGAN 9 12 MOULTRIE 1 0 OGLE 15 13 PEORIA 10 3 PERRY 21 24 PIKE 42 25 POPE 10 8 PULASKI 18 14 RANDOLPH 39 44 RICHLAND 14 1 ROCK ISLAND 13 12 SALINE 15 8 SANGAMON 15 9 SCHUYLER 13 17 SCOTT 5 5 SHELBY 18 11 ST CLAIR 23 16 STARK 2 1 STEPHENSON 18 16 TAZEWELL 4 6 UNION 25 26 VERMILION 6 8 WABASH 3 1 WARREN 7 5 WASHINGTON 8 16 WAYNE 24 27 WHITE 15 15 WHITESIDE 10 10 WILL 4 3 WILLIAMSON 23 18 WINNEBAGO 14 12 WOODFORD 5 3 Grand Total 1364 1143
