Newbie question - IL public land turkey outside special hunt areas?
 

Hello from a first time hunter
I am looking for advice about hunting with a spring turkey permit for Illinois Jo Davies county that I got.

I spent a lot of time on the IL DNR website but all I see in that country are special hunt areas such as Apple River Canyon, Tapley Woods.
Regulations for special hunt areas say
Okay so county permits are not valid for the special hunt area - but then where are they valid ?

Can I go hunt at all? :confused2:

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

That Jo tag is good on private property, you need special hunt area tags for the public land, I’m sure those tags have been gobbled up (no pun intended)

There are public lands in Illinois where only a county permit is required. I've hunted several in southern part of the state. But I'm not familiar if there are any in Jo Davies. You should search the dnr website. Another source is county owned properties. Those would take a little more digging to identify. The majority of the state land that I've tried where only a county permit was required was not good hunting. That's why they don't bother with a lottery. However, I did locate one slammer property so far. Must have scouted/hunted 20 to find it though! It's far away from metropolitan areas. Probably nobody wants to drive that far for a turkey! I'm lucky, my job takes me near there every other year so my expenses are paid. Very easy draw county too! Watched turkey all morning long until the hens broke off to their nests and the big toms came running in to my dekes. No pressure at all there. Had my pick of toms and took my biggest ever 25# last year. Nobody must go there. Such properties are tough to find but they can be identified for those who don't give up looking.