Good question that I should have addressed in my original post. Rather than say how much I am willing to spend, I think that it would be more informative to say that I am looking for around 40-60 acres in central or southern Illinois. I would be open to either all hunting or a combination of woods and tillable soil that could be leased out.

Obviously with such a small parcel, neighbors come much more into play than it would with more acreage. Especially if those small town neighbors view you as an outsider and therefore have no qualms about trespassing, poaching, or using your property as a dumping ground.

As far as using the money for hunting trips, I suppose that's a viable solution. However, land tends to rise in value over the very long term whereas a hunting trip is cash lost forever. Of course if owning the land turns out to be a nightmare, then those hunting trips would be looking pretty good.