Ok, I just can’t take looking at these Midwest bucks any longer. Being a deputy sheriff in FL for 8 years I’m going to freeze my retirement and move to Illinois. Any LEO’s have any agency suggestions that I can take a look at? Dead serious, so any suggestions are appreciated mid to large agencies, good schools, and some of those beautiful heavy hornedIllinois bucks. I seriously can’t sleep at night….I just have to chase ‘em.

I don't know how easy it would be to find a place to hunt in Livingston County...but we deffinatly could use a few good officers!!

Is it just hard to find a lease or public land to hunt? I don't have a clue about Illinois.

There is no public land around for about 60 miles and our great govenor plans on closing that one. With our great govenor, you may be better off in Iowa or Wisconsin?

Or Missouri...lots of public land

Just checked out Livingston County SO.......wow the stats/part ones are crazy compaired to where I'm at. We work 4/10's but they usually turn into 12's daily. It's almost nonstop start to finish. I checked out the county HR site and it said pay was optional?? Do they have the pay/benifits posted anywhere?

I'd think real long and hard before wanting to move to IL. This state is a mess.

*Two dozen state parks and historic sites are scheduled for closing, and more than 300 state workers are supposed to be laid off Nov. 30. [only 1% of the land in IL is owned by the state so every park closed makes it that much tougher to find a place to hunt or fish or hike or camp or picnic]

*The governor's state revenue department warned that money coming into state coffers was falling a projected $800 million below budgeted levels, and that shortfall could top $1 billion in a few months.

*Comptroller Dan Hynes asked for help from lawmakers and the governor to pay down a record-smashing $4 billion backlog in unpaid state bills - a total that could reach $5 billion by next spring.

*(printed in May) The state’s pension debt will exceed $44 billion this summer, increasing at a rate of about $120 per second, according to Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration. The debt already tops $42 billion — enough to give every one of Illinois’ 12.8 million residents a check of $3,300 or buy 937,000 Cadillacs at $45,000 a pop.

*The combination of debt in terms of both money and percentage gives Illinois the infamous distinction of having the nation’s worst pension problem, according to an Associated Press review of records and interviews with experts. And there’s no solution in sight.


On top of that, you'll probably have to pay through the nose to lease a decent place to hunt. In the long run you'd be better off just leasing from FL or going through an outfitter.

Yeah, I think I'm going to look at some other midwest states. It seems that most of the SO's/PD's in Il don't pay for exp. Would be hard to take a big pay cut...... guess I will just have to start using outfitters

With all of those problems it is real comforting to know that our new president elect represented Illinois. Usually a senator is suppose to lok out for the welfare of their own state first.

I was thinking the exact same thing.