BT,

Yeah I hear you on the Illinois thing. Last year the state started emphasizing doe reduction after getting considerable support for herd reduction based on soliciting opinions from a wide range of stakeholders, not just deer hunters. Then, this year you get some reduced harvests in some areas because of late crop harvests and some bad weather on a couple of key weekends, and suddenly you start hearing pretty much the same thing as some of the PA folks, despite the fact that folks still pretty much put meat in the freezer and horns on the wall. Illinois deer hunting is still pretty close to an alltime high in both quantity and quality, yet if someone did a poll they would probably get the impression that it sucks. Go figure....

Funny though that my Dad and niece each killed decent 7 pointers, although my Dad's hunting partner did get a very nice 11 pointer. My sister didn't even get a shot at a buck. So, all in all it was about a typical year for our area. Yet, it doesn't sound much better, and in some cases not as good, as what some folks in this thread were saying for their PA hunts.