The joy of public land in Illinois: A public-land Turkey of the Week

John Litwicki noted, “There is still is some good public land.’’

The Joliet man backed it up Sunday morning bagging this tom turkey.

“Had four on tree and this one broke off,” he emailed. “Hen came in and he was following on a string.”

The 20-pound tom had 1 1/8th-inch spurs and a 10-inch beard.

TOTW, the celebration of hunting wild turkeys and and their stories around Chicago outdoors, runs Wednesdays on the Sun-Times’ outdoors page as warranted. Submit nominations on Facebook (Dale Bowman), on Twitter (@BowmanOutside) or by email (straycasts@sbcglobal.net).