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Wild turkey hunting in Northern Lower Michigan

Last updated 2026-09-24 · from MDNR data · 2025–26 licence year

Wild turkey hunting in Northern Lower Michigan. The season runs September 15, 2025 to November 14, 2025 — on dates that depend on the zone. 148 public units and 1,859,835 acres fall inside this region, the largest of them Manistee National Forest at 538,905 acres. The bird is a stronghold in Michigan.

The ground

The top third of Michigan's mitten: state forest in big continuous blocks, aspen cut on a rotation that has been running for decades, and river bottoms — the Au Sable, the Manistee, the Pere Marquette — where the alder runs down to the water. This is the most heavily hunted upland ground in the state and it still produces, because the forestry that makes the cover has not stopped.

Written for this app — not an agency description. Everything below that is a rule or a number names the source it came from.

The cover, and how it is hunted

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.

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 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.

Season and limits

MDNR's dates for the 2025–26 licence year, read from MDNR. Michigan lists this season as Wild turkey (fall). It is zoned, and this region is not a zone — check which zone a unit falls in before you go.

ZoneOpensClosesDays
Fall turkey units I and MSeptember 15, 2025November 14, 202561
Outside both fall turkey unitsClosed season
Open today
Shut
Bag limit
not published MDNR publishes no bag limit for this species on a page this app reads, and this page will not guess one.
Hunter orange
not required for this speciesSmall game hunters must wear a hunter-orange cap, hat, vest, jacket or rain gear as the outermost garment, visible from all sides. Camouflage counts if it is at least 50% orange.
Shooting hours
One half-hour before sunrise until sunset.
Sundays
No statewide Sunday closure for small game. A few counties restrict firearm hunting on private land under PA 319 of 1994 — not mapped here.

Public land in Northern Lower Michigan

148 units and 1,859,835 acres, out of 344 huntable units in Michigan. MDNR does not publish a per-parcel species list, so this is not filtered to wild turkey.

Ordered by recorded acres — how much of each unit lies inside subbasins where wild turkey is recorded at regular strength or better — rather than by how big the unit is. The biggest block in a state is often not in the half of it the bird is in. PAD-US splits a forest into many parcels, so acreage is summed over the unit's name, and the share is measured against the unit's drawn boundary rather than a centroid: a national forest can be two polygons across half a peninsula.

Season boundary drawn Narrowed to ground MDNR opens a season on (Fall turkey units I and M), which leaves 69 eligible units.
Boundary: county lines (Census TIGER). The order names counties rather than describing a boundary, so the county edges are the rule itself and not a simplification of it.
Season geography read against the published rule on 2026-08-23.

UnitClassManagerRecorded acres AcresWhere the records are
Manistee National ForestNational forestUSFS 537,362 538,905 100% regular
Huron National ForestNational forestUSFS 419,533 436,312 96% regular, 3% present, 1% occasional
Cadillac State Forest AreaState forestSDNR 221,994 221,994 100% regular
Pigeon River Country State Forest AreaState forestSDNR 103,170 103,170 100% regular
Atlanta State Forest AreaState forestSDNR 79,410 261,158 30% regular, 42% present, 28% occasional
Shingleton State Foreset AreaState forestSDNR 27,142 368,105 7% stronghold, 93% no records
Kirtland Warbler Unit DamonState forestSDNR 25,229 25,229 100% regular
White, Michigan Wild And Scenic River Study AreaWild & scenic river corridorUSFS 20,570 20,570 100% regular
Kirtland Warbler Unit Clear LakeState forestSDNR 19,202 19,202 100% regular
Pere Marquette, Michigan Wild and Scenic RiverWild & scenic river corridorUSFS 13,099 13,099 100% regular
Houghton Lake State Wildlife Research AreaState game areaSFW 11,988 11,988 100% regular
Natural Area Dead Stream SwampState forestSDNR 11,547 11,547 100% regular
ClassUnitsAcres
National forest9978,958
State forest40673,799
State game area87140,461
Wild & scenic river corridor1266,617

A region here is a bounding box — 43.5° to 45.9° north, 86.7° to 82.9° west — and not a boundary anybody drew on the ground. A unit that straddles the edge is placed by where its middle is. PAD-US says who manages a parcel, not where its line runs and not whether it carries a local closure: context, not permission. Check the unit with MDNR before you park.

Weather and timing

Early October is warm and green and hard to see through; the two weeks either side of the leaf drop, usually mid to late October, are the season. Snow arrives in November and concentrates birds in conifer edges.

The place

Grayling, Mio, Baldwin and Cadillac are the towns the season runs out of. Camps book a year ahead for the third week of October, and the state forest campgrounds fill with dog trailers.

Read next

Other regions in Michigan

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