How do you hunt wild turkey in Wisconsin?

How to hunt wild turkey in Wisconsin

Last updated 2026-09-24 · from WDNR data · 2026 season year

Wild turkey in Wisconsin is hunted in mature hardwoods that carry mast. Locate first and call second. Fall hunting is often a matter of finding a flock, scattering it and calling it back together; spring hunting is working a gobbler off the roost from a set-up he can walk to without crossing anything. Wisconsin's 2026 wild turkey season runs September 12, 2026 to January 3, 2027 — 114 days afield.

The cover

Mature hardwoods that carry mast — oak ridges and beech — against open ground: pasture, food plot, log landing or field edge where birds strut and feed. Roost trees are usually the biggest timber near water.

How it is hunted

Locate first and call second. Fall hunting is often a matter of finding a flock, scattering it and calling it back together; spring hunting is working a gobbler off the roost from a set-up he can walk to without crossing anything.

Dogs

Dogs are legal for fall turkey in some states and not in others, and the rule is the state's rather than a preference — the regulations page for each state carries it.

This app does not carry an equipment and methods table for Wisconsin — gauge, choke, shot, capacity and the dog rules. Michigan's is shipped and no other state's is, and printing Michigan's under another agency's name would be a citation error rather than a rounding one. See WDNR.

The cover, tactics and dog notes above are written for this app — not an agency description and not a regulation. Everything that is a rule carries the page it was read from.

The other questions

By region

Open the hunting map →Public land and bird cover, drawn for the bird you are after.