Can you hunt your own Thanksgiving turkey in Utah?

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — With Thanksgiving quickly approaching, some Utahns might be interested in skipping out on the grocery store and hunting their own wild turkey. Here’s what you need to know if you want to bag a turkey.

While the main hunting season for turkeys is in spring, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources

(DWR) offers a limited number of fall permits to hunt wild turkeys. These permits are part of fall management, meaning that they’re in place to help reduce the number of “nuisance situations” in some counties.

Every year, DWR works with biologists to calculate how many fall permits should be available based on the population and nuisance situations in Utah. Each hunter may purchase up to three fall management permits: two for beardless turkeys and one for either sex of turkey.

Because the availability of fall permits is based on mitigating nuisance situations, the DWR encourages hunters to harvest female turkeys, and there is no requirement to harvest a bearded turkey. Utah has two subspecies of wild turkeys, according to DWR: the Rio Grande turkey and the Merriam’s turkey.

Below are the regions that are offering fall management permits, how many they are offering, and how long they are valid:

• Central Region: 800 total permits — Oct. 1, 2025 – Feb. 28, 2026
• Northern Region: 2,060 total permits — Oct. 1, 2025 – Feb. 28, 2026
• Southeastern Region: 66 total permits — Oct. 1, 2025 – Feb. 28, 2026
• Southern Region: 155 total permits — Oct. 1, 2025 – Jan. 4, 2026

While the hunt permits are valid for these regions, DWR reminds that only specific areas will be open. Those areas are mostly on private property, meaning that you must obtain “documented permission” from the property owner before hunting. Maps are available online here.

Fall management permits became available on Sept. 11 this year, and they generally become available during early September every year.

If you’re interested in hunting a turkey during the spring and saving it for the holidays, applications for a limited-entry hunt in 2026 will open on Dec. 12, 2025. Find out more information about hunting turkeys and obtaining permits on DWR’s website.