Kid,

That's why i said you need to shop around in Illinois for land. In the area where I own land in southeastern Illinois, I know of a couple tracts of hunting land that have sold for 1000 to 1500 an acre in the last few months because of the recession. I paid 1650 an acre for some so-so hunting ground back when the real estate prices had pretty much peaked. Have hard of plenty of other pieces of very good hunting ground selling for 1650 to 1850 an acre recently. People are not knocking on your door trying to sell it, so yes it does take some effort to shop around and find something.