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Old 10-20-2015, 10:07 AM
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uncle matt
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Darien, IL
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Default Il deer hunters lets talk

Thought it would be good to talk about what is going on with the state's deep population and the decline in annual harvest numbers over the past few years. We can share comments on what we expect or forecast for this year’s harvest, what we think is going on and what is really going on. Does anyone really know what is going on?

I believe this season harvest numbers will go up but not much and this will be across the state. I have looked into the deer harvest over the past 10 years focusing on the sharp decline of the 2013-2014 season and subsequently the 2014-2015 season. Deer harvest numbers across the state look like this:


SEASON HARVESTED/PERMITS (SUCCESS %) MALE %/FEMALE % ARCHERY %/FIREARM %

2004-2005 190,456 40 / 60

2005-2006 201,209/571,000 (35) 54/46 33/67

2006-2007 196,241/589,400 (33) 54/46 33/67

2007-2008 117,755/611,500 (19) 54/46 32/68

2008-2009 188,901/621,000 (30) 50/50 34/66

2009-2010 189,634/650,459 (29) 50/50 34/66

2010-2011 182,270/632,000 (29) 50/50 35/65

2011-2012 181,451/629,000 (29) 51/49 34/66

2012-2013 180,811/634,000 (29) 51/49 33/67

2013-2014 148,614/618,500 (24) 51/49 39/61

2014-2015 145,720/592,500 (24) 53/47 38/62


So in looking at those numbers I do not believe the decline in the deer harvest is as bad as some people talk. I mean some talk like the deer are disappearing. Let’s just call 10-11, 11-12 & 12-13 seasons 181,000 deer harvested and 13-14 & 14-15 seasons as 147,000 deer harvested. That is only a 19% decrease in that time period and as my chart shows only 5% in the bigger picture. I'm going to look into the decrease more as what intrigues me is the drop from 12-13 to 13-14 and then reoccurring 14-15. I do believe the numbers and that fewer deer are being killed but I believe there are some other factors that are playing into state’s deer harvest numbers.
1. I think there are fewer guys hunting. Even if they got tags other things kept them from the field as people are increasingly busy with a multitude of things these days.
2. I think there is an increasing number of hunters not checking in their kills for one reason or another such as calling in is too much hassle, no phone service or just intentional (poaching).
Things like these alter the success ratio.

I have also looked at the crop harvest reports for the same time periods and see that crops came in timely in all years except the 2009-2010 season when things came in late. Only 19% of the corn was reported in on Nov 1 vs average of 90% in by +/- Nov 1. What effect did that late crop harvest have on the deer harvest that season? Really? None. Although there were 733 more deer reported harvested that year, it was an overall decrease of 1% compared to the number of total permits issued. (There were 5, 750 more archery permits issued also compared to 08-09). So no, the late crop harvest did nothing.

So what’s the issue? What are guys complaining about? What do the numbers say? What the heck is going on?

At this point obviously the deer harvest numbers are down about 34,000 deer in 13-14 & 14-14 from what we had come to expect from previous years. I guess if you look at it as 68,000 guys (34,000 x 2 yrs) who kind of expected to get deer, didn’t and are making a vocal issue about it – that is what is being heard.

Then there is the disease issue. There are diseases now in the state and I will look into the counties with disease reported and the deer harvest numbers in those counties to see if the drops are related to fewer deer populations in those counties.

So what are some thoughts? This seasons expectations and predictions for Illinois?

Last edited by uncle matt; 10-20-2015 at 10:22 AM.
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