I also enjoyed this book. John E. does go over the top sometimes in his recommendations. Read it and you will see. My experience is that the big difference between IL and PA is the control of the hunters. My family has 120 acres in PA that is fully posted, but guys keep coming on every year. I have called the game commission and they won't enforce trespassing and law enforcement is not interested. In IL, most people respect the borders where I have hunted. Obviously, public land hunting in IL is probably more like PA. But the limited firearms seasons in IL combined with controlled hunting yields many more bucks in the 3.5+ age class. The hunting is not easy in IL, but I always see more deer and bigger bucks on the private farms that I have hunted.