I don't know Illinois, but I do a lot of shed hunting here in Idaho. For one Its important to know when your deer do most of their shedding, I say this because you have to decide if its worth bumping several packing bucks versus finding one bucks sheds ..say if its too early in the shedding process for your area. Here its not, many bucks have dropped, guys are finding fresh sheds daily.

Make sure you look for sheds in the areas the bucks are using right now, where they are feeding and bedding and in between. Even on flat ground like I have shed hunted in Saskatchewan, I have found that deer really do like the sunny areas this time of year if you have snow and or cold temperatures. I also have found that once the hunting stops in my area and the deer are left alone, the bucks will bed much closer to food sources and I find sheds right in the food sources. Deer here do a lot of browsing because of the thick timbered and brushy habitat. They really arent hitting any agricultural crops right now because we really dont have much for winter ag. I am sure many states are different. So I am looking on southern faces where there is a lot of winter type feed.

I have no idea if any of this helps since we live in different habitats, I will say this, I believe most of my shed finds come from two things, knowing exactly where BUCKS like to hang out and feed this time of year and putting on miles and miles of searching..time time time.. Never giving up even if I go all day without finding a shed. Somedays I may find 1/2 a dozen sheds..which is a really goodday forme inthis habitat...somedays..I find none..just keep after it.

I have shed hunted for mule deer sheds in open terrain and have found as many as 30 ina day...again habitat, visibilty and finding winter feeding/ranging areas that don't get picked over by other shed hunters all plays into find success rates..good luck

Troy