I have three little letters I recommend be used for atleast the next few years.

EAB

9 days for the late season seems extreme. Mid-January is a terrible time to have the late season hunt anyway......too many bucks killed that have lost antlers.

I have no problem with a four day first gun season, it will have minimal effect.

The biggest effect Illinois could have on deer populations is to enhance hunting opportunities on private land. Nothing was proposed. Oh they talked about it, but thats it. One last thing.........its not over yet. This year they will be discussing simplying obtaining nuisance deer permits including using them in the non-hunting season.[:@]

Lanse, I guess you are not used to it. I live in Crawford and hunt in both Crawford and Lawrence counties. I can guarantee that these counties are not even close in deer population compared to many other counties. We are probably in the middle. I've hunted for over 32 years and bowhunt religiously, driving on the average of 18 miles one way to my hunting grounds. In all of those years I have only hit one deer with a truck. I also call Terre Haute, Ind. my 2nd home as I am there about every other week visiting my sisters and taking the family out. Never hit a deer once driving on Route 1 or U.S. 41. A buddy of mine drives 43 miles from Casey to Robinson to work every day for 6 years now and has never hit a deer. By the way, sometime ya need to let me know when you are going down 1 on your way to Lawrenceville. We'll meet in Robinson somewhere and have a bite to eat.

Mag,

I'm certainly not used to the numbers of deer on the roads over the past decade or so compared to when I was growing up in that part of the country in the late 70s/early 80s. Like I said, I've hit one deer on lower hwy 1 and have hadother close callsin that whole area that I mentioned above in recent years. I guess my sense of adventure and willingness totolerate that situation has weakened now that I have Little Lanse sitting in his car seat with me.

I've got a buddy up by Terre Haute (outside of Paris)that is now up to at least three collisions with deer in the recent past. For every person who has had few if any run ins with deer on the road in southeastern Illinois, there are others who have had far toomany close encounters of the wrong kind.

I may be in Richland County this weekend for the end of rabbit season. Doubt that I will make it up to Robinson, but you are welcome to come down and stomp some brush with us. Dont think anybody will be hunting my land, so you would be welcome to come early and try to drop a deer to warm up for the rabbit hunt.

The offer is appreciated but I don't have a deer firearms permit. Good luck with the rabbits, don't see many around anymore along with quail. Too many yotes, hawks, owls and yes kitty cats running around.

We still have a few bunnies left in richland county. The coyotes have been thinned out a little because some of the younger folks in the area have been taking up trapping and have been good at catching them. We also have two different groups of guys who come thru running coyotes with dogs and they have done a good job too. There is a decent quail population largely because hardly anyone hunts them with dogs. So, unless you knock one or two down after jumping them while rabbit hunting they dont have much to fear, except for the cats.

Lanse and 2 Lunger....both of you bring up valid points. I highly agree with the call in system being a total joke, there is no way 80,000 less deer were taken. Maybethe harvest was less, but not by that amount. There is zero accountability with this call in system, it's all dependant on the "good faith" of hunters, and we all know that there are some real idiots out there, and during shotgun season they come crawling out of the wood work like an ant infestation.

And whoever said Crawford Co. didn't have the deer numbers has been misinformed, it's in the top 5% of the entire state as deer per acre.

I am glad this so called "Task Force" didn't go with the early Doe only season that was talked about at the end of October, that makes me think they did listen to the concerns about us bow hunters.

I like the idea of "earn a 2nd buck", but then again, the call in method will hamper it'sability to function correctly.

I agree 100%. The only way this will work is to go back to check in stations and the EAB tag is only available at the check in station upon checking in your doe. No over the counter BS.

Great idea, but Illinois will never do it[].

Shhhhhhhhhhh! There are already enough people from the Dixie states up here.

This is the real problem in IL: HUNTER ACCESS. In a state with maybe 1-4% public land. Hunter Access is the problem. Hunter Access, Hunter Access, Hunter Access..

Let's fix this problem first.[:@]