JZarr

This is ridiculous. Anyone who thinks that increasing the cap on non resident permits is going to do anything but hurt the overall quality of hunting in this state is an idiot.

Look around us guys, everywhere you go land is getting leased up left and right. It is damn near impossible to find a spot to hunt anywhere in northern or western Illinois without either being a landowner, be related to one, or being willing to fork out big money. Public hunting lands in these areas are pretty much non-existant in any sort of real number. The ones that are around are flooded with people so much so that it makes hunting them more of a chore than an enjoyable experience.

The # of NR permits needs to be left right where it is. Upping it is only going to flood already overhunted areas with even more trophy hunters who are going to shoot nothing but bucks and throw the buck/doe ratio even more out of whack than it already is.

I agree with Don K - we need to go back to a lottery system. Even with unlimited archery antlerless tags there aren't enough does being shot, and that is problem that needs to be addressed far before whether or not we should allow more non residents in here just so we can pad the state budget a little more.