Belle Island,

Silaom Springs State Park in Adams County is where our group holds "Deer Camp" every year. Great buck country, but over near Quincy (western IL).

Jubilee College Park near Peoria and Sand Ridge (between Peoria and Springfield) are also good state parks to bowhunt.

Sorry to hear about your bad experiences w/ some Illinois natives. Might be a few folks around here that go a little overboard to protect their hunting grounds. Ethical hunters like yourself is not the problem...it's the folks who are wanting to take our god-given right to hunt away.

Good luck and good hunting!!

I am a IL resident and most of the ground I hunt is public groud. I really get irritated when it comes shotgun season. Out of staters always show up by the dozens and don't care who they make mad. I saw one guy last year from my stand riding around on his atv with a loaded gun in his had looking to jump a deer. They will come and sit 50yd from a stand with a local hunter in it and won't think twice. One year my uncle had two of them sitting within 40yd of him. That's why there is a lot of hard feelings. It has got bad enough I don't even shotgun hunt there anymore. It is not uncommon to see 4-6 hunters from your stand in one evening. Now would that make you guys mad?

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote<font size=1 face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>I am a IL resident and most of the ground I hunt is public groud. I really get irritated when it comes shotgun season. Out of staters always show up by the dozens and don't care who they make mad. I saw one guy last year from my stand riding around on his atv with a loaded gun in his had looking to jump a deer. They will come and sit 50yd from a stand with a local hunter in it and won't think twice. One year my uncle had two of them sitting within 40yd of him. That's why there is a lot of hard feelings. It has got bad enough I don't even shotgun hunt there anymore. It is not uncommon to see 4-6 hunters from your stand in one evening. Now would that make you guys mad? <hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' size=2 id=quote>

Yep, it sure would. But are you checking their ID in the woods or how do you know they're out of staters? Secondly, you can't judge everyone from the actions of the few. No, I would be willing to bet that there are just as many residents as out of staters walking around. I don't blame you for being mad but it has been that way in every state that I ever hunted on public ground during the gun season. To a lot of guys walking around is their idea of hunting.

Protect your hunting rights, &quot;Spay or neuter a liberal.&quot;

The way I know they are out of staters is I see the trucks they drive. They all have out of state license plates! I know all of the locals that hunt out there too, so most of them are non-residents. Hopefully now that the price of tags and licenses have come up more people,like the ones I deal with,will hunt somewhere else!