IL Hunter

This post I am going to have to rant a little bit about the upcoming shotgun seasons and current archery season.

I am lucky enough to be hunting in Pike county on over 700 acres of private land. I am the only person who hunts this land, as everyone else in my family has no interest in hunting. The land surrounding this property is all leased up by out of state hunters at anywhere from $40 to $50 and acre.

Now where i hunt from there is a very slim possibility that a wounded deer could get off the property and die on a neighboring property. As a precaution I asked permission to not hunt, but be able to track a deer if need be. I was denied permission by all landowners.

The law here says that if I have a wounded deer that dies on someone elses property and they will not let me get to it neither party gets to keep the deer and the DNR has to disposve of it. Does this seem like the business aspect of hunting is getting in the way of the fun?

I am lucky to have the land I have to hunt for no cost to me, but a lot of friends and family members are losing 1000's of acres they used to be able to hunt on. A lot of local people are losing their land and I find this dissapointing, and bad for the sport soince out of of out of staters of leasing up entire farms and hunting from 3 to 7 days all year.

Sorry for the long winded post, but I felt the need to get the feeling of my chest.

robbdad1

I own property in Carroll County ILand we are starting to have the same problem. We used to know every owner 5 farms in every direction and we would share a case or three of brewat one of ourbarns after hunting.
Now they all lease out the land and I don't even know the people hunting next to me.

There are no fences on the back side my timber. Last year my son was walking and crossed on the nieghbors property by accidentand the guy who leasesd it yelledand threatened to shot him.

It won't be long until hunting your own land will be as bad as a state park.

Two years ago I shot a deer. It ran and crossed on the next farm and died in a grassy field.Before I even got there they tagged it and had it on their Gator. I went back to the barn on that farm and asked about that deer and they swear their dad shot it. A nice full body 6 pt. for the freezer. That never would have happened before that farm was leased to the outfitters. I guess when your paying $2,000 to deer hunt you don't care how you get your deer.

IL Hunter

This whole thing bothers me. I didn't grow up in Pike, but thats where my roots are and my girlfriend is from so I am very closely tied to it. I am surrounded by by people hunting from the Carolina's, Mississippi, New York, and various other places. I have never killed a buck before, and I will be personally devasted if Somebody gets a deer that I wound because it died. The only fences I have are few and they are low.

I also have to worry about people hunting my ground without permission. There is some timber on it with cattle, and I'm going to have to send somebody back there duing shotgun season in orange jsut to make sure that people aren't illegally back there. I love hunting, and a lot of this just sickens me.

I'm not anti outfitter at all, but at this point it is getting ridiculous to me. If i had money I would pay an outfitter to get me on elk or caribou, and bears or various other species, but the amoutn of outfitters and leased land in west central illinois is ridiculous. I just want to keep on hunting and having fun with it, and one day pass it on to someone else, but with prices the way they are I'm not going to be able to.

uncle matt

Yes Pike is "sold out" as far as land leases and outfitting goes. If you think that folks are gonna get on your land, then IL it seems that you certainly need to post your land. And when you post land you have to do it well, with LOTS of signs, and the signs need to be good quality (not garage sale/for sale type) or you'll be re-posting every year. And you're correct - your probobly going to have to run a patrol to enforce your wishes.

Be prepared to call the right LE agencies (if that's the route you want to go) with their numbers in hand and cell phone in hand while "on patrol".

If you think deer you shoot may run on to their properties and they won't let you recover it.............you have 700 acres to hunt all yourself? There should be alternative stand locations.

Word of advice on "patrol" techniques. Good binoculars. I wish you luck this season.

IL Hunter

I'm not really worried about the deer running onto the property it's just a worst case scenario for me, I'd already got the land posted, but you never can tell what some people will do.