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Old 10-21-2015, 06:23 AM
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woodenb14
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I'm in Jo Daviess County (the northwest corner of IL) which is a "CWD County". I've looked at the same numbers on the IL DNR site that you've posted. I'm not sure what is driving the decline the past few years. I do know that I personally have seen no decrease in deer numbers while hunting. If anything, I see more deer now than I did 5+ years ago, and I've been hunting the same locations forever. Numbers harvested in Jo Daviess for 2010, 11, 12, 13, and 14 were 3961, 3886, 4364, 3556, 3763. It seems there are more seasons than ever, and tags can be bought over the counter during firearm seasons, which is a fairly recent new thing.

I bowhunt with a friend, and we both agree there is no shortage of deer. I also shotgun hunt with a group of 8-12 guys. We do a lot of pushing during the shotgun seasons, and we seem to be shooting more deer than ever the past five years. I don't think any of us are any better shots than we used to be, so the local deer population has to be up.
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