If you deer hunt in Illinois......
 

.......you might find this interesting. www.prairiestateoutdoors.com/index.php?/article/deer_task_force_eyeing_public_meetings/


In particular, take note of the comments after the story. Some of you non-residentsand outfitters may not like what you read (or even some residents), but i thought you might find what the average Illinois resident trulythinks about the current state of deer hunting in Illinois enlightening.Managing the Deer herd in Illinois is unlike probablyany other state in the country. The IDNR is slave to many masters and unfortunately resident huntersand wildlife biologists are somewhere down the list of opinions that matter. Hopefully, residents will make a point to get to these meetings, if possible,and make their voices heard and just as importantly, the IDNR will listen. There are no easy answers, but it is clear Illinois residents think that things have got to change.

RE: If you deer hunt in Illinois......
 

It is clear that something has got to give. I like all of the suggestions.

RE: If you deer hunt in Illinois......
 

Non-residents drive to Illinois for the large, mature bucks; not the large number of does. Quality deer management involves large antlerless harvests to keep the overall population in check. I would support whatever means of doe harvest the DNR proposes.

RE: If you deer hunt in Illinois......
 

how about a doe only season for archery, maybe june to oct. 1st. still could tell a buck from doe. public access is also a major problem here. got to drive 1 hour to bow hunt and seenext to nothing while i see deer every day to and from work.

RE: If you deer hunt in Illinois......
 

Lots of residents aint too fired up about taking does either. It is like pulling teeth with my dad to get him to just shoot one for some tender meat. he's not alone.

RE: If you deer hunt in Illinois......
 

What a flippin joke our DNR is becoming...who is this Shelton guy? He said there is a "down time" for archers in Oct? So there would be more involvement among hunters to gun hunt does that time of year....Ummmmm, correct me if I'm wrong, doesn't the pre rut start kicking in around the 3rd week in Oct? Don't 90% of logical bowhunters know that's the startingtime to be in the woods as much as possible? I agree with extending the 2nd season to 7 days, and even adding a late season gun hunt that includesany weapon currently legal to use in Illinois.The "shoot a doe before abuck" will never work without bringing back check stations. Why not include 2 or 3 antlerless tags for every gun permitt issued? Why not issue land owner tags without all the red tape? Why must you have a minimum of 40 acres to aquire a landowner tag to begin with? Why not open land owned by the state that is currently closed to ALL forms of hunting? Why not set up more "deer crossing" signs where deer to vehicle accidents occur most often? Until that Chicago idiot Rob "Blowitbitch" gets removed from office, our DNR will continue to spiral out of control.

RE: If you deer hunt in Illinois......
 

Those idiots won't even issue cull permits to farmers who are getting creamed by the overpopulation of does and young bucks.

As far as i am concerned, they can identify problem counties and open a 90 day season where you can use whatever is legal in the state of Illinois to take a very generous limit of deer until a certain quota is filled. But they aren't oo interested in doing anything that would take money or extra effort, they are just interested in raking the mney from permits in with both hands.[:'(]

RE: If you deer hunt in Illinois......
 

Unbelievable!!! If they add an October gun season us bowhunters can count on seeing less bucks during our primetime. I'm all for closing bow season Dec.31st and putting up a 7 day gun season the first of January.

I've got a feeling something is going to happen and bowhunters are not going to like it.

RE: If you deer hunt in Illinois......
 

I think "Earn a 2nd buck tag" is a much better idea than simply "earn a buck tag"

I'm sure many guys shoot 2 bucks every year and move on. I'd certainly hate to miss a buck of a lifetime because I had yet to shoot my doe.....also what about the guys who have 3days to hunt, period.

And yes with the check stations gone, you could just call in your "1st doe" and earn that buck tag, but the honor system I do think works by most hunters.

RE: If you deer hunt in Illinois......
 

This was my comments to the posts on the topic. I agree with 2 Lunger...we archers are going to get screwed...bad!


So far I have heard some good ideas and some dumb arguments. I say suggestions 1 & 2 are good ideas. Buying tags over the counter would help more people, like me, hunt late season. If the season was a few more days that would be nice. I heard arguments against this like...we might shoot bucks that lost horns or buttons bucks...to that I say figure it out! With good hunting techniques you can figure out what you’re shooting. I have been hunting for 12 years now and have never shot a button buck...why? Because on our small property my family and I decided to check over each animal before we shoot it. We use QDM on our small farm and make sure the animals we harvest are mature. It is not that hard of a concept. Besides when people don’t study what their shooting they usually end up shooting someone. It’s dumb practices like shooting deer in lowlight practices and not knowing for sure what they are that get people shot. Early season, mid-october or longer seasons in dec would hurt deer populations and suck for archery hunters. I am a hardcore archery hunter and each year after the gun seasons it takes days & weeks to even see deer again because of all the shooting. The early season is when we take advantage of hunting. the earn-a-buck program would be stupid. Last season I shot a buck on the first night out because we had patterned him all summer and set-up right on his travel lanes and he walked right by me. I agree for more public access too. open up some land for us to hunt, we just lost some of our prime hunting land to private owners andare down to only our small farm.
Just my two cents is use ideas 1 & 2...and get blagojevich out along with his retard friends!

RE: If you deer hunt in Illinois......
 

I'm doubting another gun season in late october....bowhunters would riot!

This is prime buck/rut time, so to have it be a antlerless only season, and gun to boot, is just beyond stupid!

I think Iowa has no gun hunting until after the rut, ie all of december is gun I believe, and til then is all bow. I wouldn't mind pushing gun season back and even 1 month long all december gun hunt.

If they went to a gun season in OCT, I think I'd almost have to give up bowhunting in IL.


I'm open to suggestions, but I think...

December being gun season....
Prior to that being Bow....
Earn a 2nd buck tag, ie must harvest a doe to get a 2nd buck tag.

I'm not sure about that late season antlerless season, but I've heard of some trophy bucks being taken during these seasons due to them losing their antlers early....I think if we're going to have a late antlerless season, we should avoid it being too late, or the chance at taking some of these trophy bucks.

RE: If you deer hunt in Illinois......
 

Thought i would let this run a few days then post a few thoughts. The number one problem the IDNR has right now is the complete raping of their budget by our Governor. This led to the elimination of check stations, whichwasa huge mistake in my book. It is also why the IDNR nurses on the non-resident teat like it does.I like the idea of earn a second buck for residents and earn a firstbuck for non-residents in the Counties where a BIOLOGIST and not some Politician, Landowneror Outfitter has determined the population is too high, but that is practically unenforceable without check stations. In my opinion,far too many non-residents leave Illinois having only killed a buck.I would only agree with eliminating our split season for firearm and making one longer season if it happened in early Decembersuch as inIowa (i think Illinois could learn a lot from Iowa!). I like the idea of a longer late season and making late season a zone situation verses County by County so tags can be sold over the counter. While I'm sure some Bucks that have already dropped their antlers are taken every Winter, i doubt the percentage is very high and the thinning of the Does is more than worth it. A lot is made about the "trophy" Bucks that are killed during the late winter antler less season, but without antlers, how does anyone know anyway? A bit of a "red herring" in my book. In short, it is time to give morecontrol of the managing of Illinois's Deer herd back to the biologists and residentsand less control to the money. That will only happen when we get rid of our Governor and his Chicago cronies. Far too much emphasis is placed on antler size, and antler size only, when it comes to managing the Illinois Deer herd. Ironically, managing strictly to attain reasonable population levels would helpachieve exactly that. One last thought, the land in Illinois belongs to the individual land owner, but Illinois State law says the animals belong to the people of the State of Illinois. It is time we get some control back! ;)

RE: If you deer hunt in Illinois......
 

Where are these deer out of control? I hunt jo daviess, and I see deer, but I'd hardly say they're overpopulated, or the ratio is out of whack.

I've heard in the golden triangle things are getting bad, buck:doe ratios of like 1:15 etc....

Is this were the deer are out of control? are the ratios that bad?

Would be nice to start implementing a program that would get it closer to 1:1.

Also a month long gun season, say in december, wouldn't produce 4x the amount of deer killed IMO, few guys would hunt the entire month, and pressure may be even lighter, since guys aren't forced to hunt 2 seasons amounting to a week total, with the majority of guys hunting the weekend part. Would also give outfitters a longer season for gun etc...not that, that is much of an issue to me, just a point to be made. People could hunt when convienient....some guys wouldn't hunt the opener etc...

I'm hoping for things to change for the better.....be curious to see what comes down the way...

Also a month long firearm season, in december ideally, I think would be great if it included everything for the entire month, slug, muzzleloader, pistol. We wouldn't need a late season doe only etc...
Offering additional antlerless only tags for that season would be fine, but I don't see a reason to have a seperate late season doe only etc..., as of now maybe, but if we had a month long december gun season I wouldn't see the point.

That OCT gun season, antlerless, sounds like a youth hunt idea....personally I'm strongly opposed to any OCT gun hunt. There's plenty of antlerless deer opportunities with a bow in OCT, and thought it wasn't stated, a youth hunt in OCT....I think is more harm than good.A kid can shoot a doe or buck currently in November, or if things change, in december. Call me bitter, but I don't see the point of all these youth seasons nowadays, we bend over backwards for kids these days, when I and others were kids we didn't get special privaledges, perhaps our fathers would let us shoot the first animal we saw, and that was fine by me. Personally I think it creates an atmosphere where are kids feel entitled, so then what happens when they grow up? Also getting a kid into hunting does with these special seasons, personally as a kid I'd rather have shot a monster buck than just any old doe. Sure its experience and another opportunity to get started, but if I know when I was 12yrs old I'd rather have waited to hunt Nov gun season so I could shoot a buck than hunt earlier fora doe only. Personally the chance at a big buck would be much more exciting to me than having to take a doe. Just my $.02

RE: If you deer hunt in Illinois......
 

You can thank outfitters in the Golden Triangle for that.


I think the youth hunt in Oct. is ok, it's more geared to 1st time hunters who wouldn't enjoy hunting in 30 degree temps. And ruining there idea of hunting altogether.

RE: If you deer hunt in Illinois......
 

I am all for an earn EAB program and I mean starting withthe very first buck and the second.

GDI! Things need to get balanced out andtime is a wasting.

IMO if there is any NR coming to IL for a big IL buck that will not come because they have to harvest a doe first it is a super small percentage and someone else will glady take their spot. I know there will be whining but man ya don't go out to you honey hole and shoot the doe, ya get one elsewhere on the property and then go to the hot spots. And there would always be someone or a Hunters For The Hungry program to take the sweet meat.

Just imagine what our herd would look like today if we did something like this say 10 or even 5 years ago. Just think about it.

RE: If you deer hunt in Illinois......
 

I personally think that Wisconsin has the right idea with the earn-a-buck program. These outfitters are charging a buttload for people to come in and harvest one buck and tell them they can't take any does. That has to be the dumbest thing ever. If someone fills their buck tag or has the opportunity to take a doe at a non-peak hunting time, then they should. I know people kill nice bucks at all hours, but I try to fill my deer tag later in the morning, say after 10 or so. Then I can pull the deer out of there quick and not risk ruining my afternoon hunt.

I also feel that there are a good amount of "Old Timers" that believe the more deer there are, the more bucks will be born the following spring, therefor more bucks down the road. I have met guys like this and hunted property where they have this opinion. I believe they also hunted in a time where there was far less of a deer population and taking a doe while hunting was unthinkable. I usually take a doe or two out, meat is meat and 3 deer is usually what I need to last me the year. I'd have no problem taking another doe out, but getting rid of it is the problem. I wish it would be a little easier to donate it to a food pantry. If we don't start doing something about all these does soon, its going to get out of hand and there will be to many deer for us hunters to take out on a yearly basis. It doesn't sound like a problem now, but down the road, it could get bad IMO.

RE: If you deer hunt in Illinois......
 

Here is an idea that we had talked about last year while in camp because the topic came about this very matter. Most locals already shoot does for there freezer but I believe it is the NR that comes down to hunt and doesn't want to deal with or take the time to clean or what ever excuse they want to use and shoot does. I think the NR tags should be earn a buck and I am a NR who shoots does!! Walt

RE: If you deer hunt in Illinois......
 

This is just a BIG gimmick to try and make $$$$ off of this poor ass excuse "We have to many deer...Blah blah blah"

Take for example just this year Clinton Lake (public) no longer allows hunters to leave stands up through the season. If you want to hunt it's by 3 methods only...

1. Take a climber in and out every day

2. Take a set of climbing sticks and portable stand....in and out everyday.

3. Hunt off the ground.

Now you tell me, if they were SO concerned about the deer population in IL why in the hell would they make it so difficult to hunt them?

And to make it worse, Clinton Lake isn't the only piece of public ground in IL doing this, there are several.