On a side note, a few people have mentioned the trespassing to recover a deer scenario. This may not apply to everyone but after a long talk with a local DNR officer he suggested that if you can't find the property owners or they are out of town or if they deny you the right to get the deer, call the DNR if its the first two, they will ****** you onto the property to retrieve the deer, in the last case they will go and talk to the land owner and if they still refuse to let you get the deer they will inform the land owner that they must go and retrieve the deer and dispose of it or they can be charged with wanton waste.

We may just be lucky here in southern Illinois and have a nice DNR officer but it can't hurt to make a phone call to the local DNR and find out how they would handle this situation, most of the time they are more than willing to help as long as your polite and trying to follow the law.