hunting is quickly becoming a major role in the states budget, so what would be the logical thing to do? jack the prices of the most popular sport in IL. Although it may not be fair, its the best thing that our "governor" can do. This guy is a low down scoundral, I can tell already. Hunting is going to hell in this state by all the polotitions who really dont hunt , and dont care about it, so they decide that whatever will get them more money will be a good route to take. Our government is ruining our states hunting. simple as that.

Wow I can not belive these prices. I am very happy now I have my own property to hunt on. This will be my first year of doing this and we never had charge a hunter to use our land. One thing is if you get a deer we would like some meet or we would like to get a duck or goose in the season.

They all do bow on our land so I will be by myself for the shotgun so that is good with it being my first season. This past spring though I went though are woods and found 2 stands that I did know know that were there and they did not belong to any of the hunters we knew. So I took them down and now I have two stands to use next year. One just had me pissed off because of how close they were to the house.

yea i think all these price increases are bogus, even as a resident. i'm lucky to be able to hunt on public lands here, but it stinks because the family land is in WI, and since i'm an IL resident i get gouged there. one state increases, the others follow, honestly as a full-time student looking at grad schools it hurts to try and participate in hunting season.

If we are looking to blame someone for the massive increases in license fees, we should look in the mirror. We are the ones who support the companies/cable channels/manufacturers/magazines/etc who have turned whitetail deer (or any huntable species for that matter) into commodities. I live in Illinois, so the fees here don't hurt me too much. However, I just paid over $300 to go hunt with an old friend in Iowa this fall. I didn't like it. I could have thought of another way to use the money. The point is that I paid what the market will bear. If I don't buy the license, some schmo behind me certainly will. Illinois only sold 12,000 NR archery permits annually before they put the cap on. Now they can sell 15,000 in 9 HOURS!!! Hunters and the state created a perceived demand that made those permits a hot item.

Illinois, through 50 years of good management, good habitat, and good hunting, has suddenly found itself in possession of one of the most coveted"hunts" in the whitetail universe. In this time of shrinking budgets, can you blame them for capitalizing on this? If you want to be mad at the state, please be mad at it for not putting that money directly back into the resource. But as I write this I have hunting magazines on my desk, and the Outdoor Channel is on the TV. I'm just as much to blame as anyone else.....or we could just blame Bill Jordan and all those other guys for letting the secret out....

after going to a DNR auction today, and asked the dnr what is going on. the auction consisted of confiscated items over the past year. he told me that they raise the prices to limit the hunters out of state to make it better.he said all the money from the auction goes to the DNR, for hunting fishing, and other DNR needs. he said having such good deer #'s in this state makes it prime for out of staters. he said he used to go hunt out of state every year, but quit because of the high prices for fees. in all i think DNR is doing what should of been done 5 years ago. making the R hunters their first priority.

Zach

How did the DNR auction go?

What did things go for?

Thanks!

well most of the tree stands were home-made and peices of junk. there were like 5-7 that i would of bid on. they had about 45 spotlights and pretty good ones too. 100 fishing poles selling in sets of 3, form big poles to little. about 6 small trolling boats. a crap load of fishing nets. about 20 bows and 30 gun cases. and about 2000 or more deer antlers in boxes for sell. maybe for the lamp makers, i don't know. they quit selling guns at this auction in pawnee, IL for some odd reason. i was going to bid on some muzzleloaders or a new shotgun, but found out they had none.

most of the stuff was being bid for deceant prices i thought. not staying past the treestand sells, which was 3rd in line after the boats and spotlights. i didn't buy a thing there.

do they have these type of auctions all over the state?

Zach

I really do feel for the non-residents who wish to hunt in Illinois for having to pay such a high price for an either sex tag. Its rediculous and will in all probability affect Illinois residents who hunt deer in neighboring states eventually.

First of all THANKS Cougar and other residents of IL that have been so supportive of the NR side of this issue. I have met alot of great people while hunting in IL over the last several years and it is sad to me to think I may not be able to return because of high prices. I guess in that respect Buckhunter17 the DNR will be getting just what they want as well as you. Too bad though I think that it comes down to this. You will probably see just as many hunters, but they will just be a little higher class. If they have the money for the tag chances are they will have money for an outfitter. In turn helping the outfitter to acquire more of your hunting land. Its just not a good deal for any of us I think. I for one do not want to see my state raise their prices for folks from IL to hunt here as retaliation. That in my opinion is not the answer and I hope it does not come to that. We as sportsmen need to stand together with one voice against these pocket lining politicians. Again thanks to all IL sportsmen that kept us NR up-to-date on this situation.

Non Residents.
Welcome to IL. We have some of the best hunting in the country, and we take advantage of it. Money talks in this day and age, and if you can't afford it, then I am almost certain that there is another state (if not your own) that has lower prices and PUBLIC land. The Illinois government is just doing what any other person would do, making more and more money off of something so popular. Can you blame them? no. And although I can understand that if you are coming into the state because you were invited or for a reason of family or any of that matter, the prices are high. But guess what? nt everyone is going to be satisfied, no matter what the prices.
Lower the price - The state will be unsatisfied
Raise prices - obviously, NR's are unsatisfied.
There is nothing that we can do on this one. either pay the new prices or not hunt in IL. I guess its as simple as that.