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Where to hunt wild turkey near Appleton, Wisconsin
Last updated 2026-09-24 · seasons from WDNR · 2026 season year
There are 29 public units within 40 miles of Appleton, Wisconsin that hold ground where wild turkey is recorded — 44,315 acres of it. The most of it is in Navarino Wildlife Area, 24.2 miles out, with 14,497 recorded acres. The closest is Rat River Wildlife Area at 10.4 miles. The season runs September 12, 2026 to January 3, 2027 — 114 days afield, read against the 2026 season year from WDNR. Public-land boundaries here are PAD-US, which records who manages a parcel rather than where the line runs or whether a unit carries a local closure — check with WDNR before you park.
Public land within 40 miles of Appleton
Distance is measured to the nearest edge of a unit rather than to its middle, in a straight line — this app carries no road network and will not print a drive time it cannot compute. A unit whose ground reaches inside the circle is listed for the acreage that is inside it, never for its statewide total.
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.
WDNR names no geographic restriction on this season, so no unit is
excluded for being outside one.
Season geography here is read off a
dates table rather than the rule itself, and a dates table carries no boundary.
| Unit | Class | Miles | Recorded acres | Acres in range | Where the records are |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Navarino Wildlife Area | State wildlife area | 24.2 | 14,497 | 14,497 | 100% regular |
| Rat River Wildlife Area | State wildlife area | 10.4 | 4,568 | 4,568 | 100% regular |
| Glacial Habitat Restoration - Lm part of the unit | State wildlife area | 22 | 3,791 | 5,665 | 67% regular, 33% present |
| Poygan Marsh Wildlife Area | State wildlife area | 27.2 | 3,534 | 3,534 | 100% regular |
| Wolf River Bottoms Wildlife Area | State wildlife area | 12.7 | 3,141 | 3,141 | 100% regular |
| Wolf River Wildlife Area | State wildlife area | 20.4 | 1,984 | 1,984 | 100% regular |
| Mack Wildlife Area | State wildlife area | 13 | 1,835 | 1,835 | 100% regular |
| Oconto County Forest part of the unit | County forest | 37.2 | 1,622 | 3,102 | 52% regular, 48% present |
29 units clear the circle in all and the 8 holding the most recorded ground are named. The rest are ground a reader would drive past something better to reach.
A unit marked part of the unit has ground outside the circle as well, and the acreage here is only what is inside it. PAD-US records who manages a parcel, not where its line runs on the ground and not whether it carries a local closure: context, not permission. Check the unit with WDNR before you park.
Season and limits
WDNR's dates for the 2026 season year, read from WDNR. Wisconsin lists this season as Wild turkey (fall).
| Segment | Opens | Closes | Days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Statewide | September 12, 2026 | January 3, 2027 | 114 |
- Open today
- Open
- Bag limit
- not shown No single bag limit is shown for this species here — read the notes below and check the current WDNR regulations before you go.
- Hunter orange
- requiredAt least 50% of clothing above the waist, and any head covering, must be blaze orange or fluorescent pink any time a firearm deer season is in progress. This applies to small game and archery hunters, not only to deer hunters. Waterfowl hunters are exempt.
- Shooting hours
- not carried
- Wisconsin requires blaze orange or fluorescent pink only while a firearm deer season is in progress — but then it applies to small game hunters too. This app flags orange as required for the whole season because missing it during gun deer season is the dangerous error. Check the gun deer dates.
- Some states let a turkey hunter out of blaze orange. Wisconsin does not: the exemption here is for waterfowl hunters, so a fall turkey hunter afield while a firearm deer season is open wears it like everybody else.
- The limit is one turkey per harvest authorization, not a number of birds a day. A hunter holding more than one authorization may take more than one bird, so no daily figure is shown above — the authorizations in your pocket are the limit.
- One turkey of any age or sex per harvest authorization — either sex, unlike spring, which is bearded or male birds only.
- Three things, and all three: a turkey hunting licence for the season you are hunting, a wild turkey stamp, and an unfilled harvest authorization valid for the season, period and zone you are in.
- One fall harvest authorization comes with the fall turkey licence at no extra cost, and you choose the zone when you buy it. Where a zone has quota left, bonus authorizations go on sale in August at ten dollars for residents and fifteen for non-residents, one per hunter per day.
- Wisconsin runs seven turkey management zones, and they do not change the dates — every zone opens and shuts on the same day. What a zone decides is which authorization you may hold and how many WDNR issues there, so pick the zone you will actually hunt when you apply or buy.
- Dogs are legal for fall turkey. They are not legal in spring.
- Baiting turkeys is illegal. Hunting over agricultural crops and over wildlife food plots that were planted and left standing is not baiting.
- Fall turkey runs on WDNR's deer, bear, elk and small game shooting-hours table. Spring turkey runs on the migratory bird table, which starts earlier in the morning — they are not the same hours.
- Wisconsin's other turkey season is spring, and it is the bigger hunt: six one-week periods from 21 April to 1 June 2027, with a youth hunt on 17 and 18 April. Authorizations are drawn by zone and by period, and the application closes on 10 December.
What to walk when you get there
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.
Written for this app rather than read off an agency page — the cover a bird uses does not change at a state line. Everything above that is a date, a limit or an acreage names the source it came from.
Read next
- Where to hunt wild turkey in Wisconsin — every unit, ranked
- Wild turkey hunting in Wisconsin — season, limits and range
- How to hunt wild turkey in Wisconsin
- Wild turkey — biology, range and how it is hunted
- Wisconsin hunting regulations