Kid

No one has yet mentioned that the deer harvest year to year has stayed relatively steady, not gone down appreciably. There may be fewer deer, but it has yet to affect the harvest numbers, so what exactly is the problem ?

jrfrmn

CALL the Game Warden.
Everyone needs to do this when the anti's do these things. If we can't do it because it is against he law, why can they get away with it.
CALL THE GAME WARDEN!

Bowhunter2001

You actually believe their figures? I don't. I have a farm in Fayette Co. and have noticed that I see less and less deer ever year. My neighbors express the same feelings. My property is set up for deer. This year is worse than last year. 5 years ago I could put you on a stand and you would have a shot at a deer with a bow. Not any more.

I have many friends that aren't seeing deer like they used to in other counties and feel the same as I.

Illinois is letting to many deer be harvested, in my opinion.

Zim

I hunt public land in central IL and have not noticed any difference the last 5 years.

There were a hell of a lot more turkeys this year than in any previous by probably double! Anyone else note this? Maybe was a mild dry spring?

hunt12ga

In our area we had a big die-off over the summer a couple years back. We haven't seen very many mature deer this year. Most of the bucks that I saw with does were spikes and fork horns. I think many of the deer that would now be mature died a few years ago. I'm sure it will pick back up. Til then I'll keep the freezer full of young does yummy!

Kid

Do you think they are overstating or understating?

The 98,700 is just the firearm total. Tack on another 55,000 or so archery kills. I suppose I believe the number. Not sure I understand why the IDNR would lie, but this is Illinois. If our Department of Natural Resources is going to lie to us about harvest numbers, then not much else matters, anyway. They are clearly going to do what ever they want. I hope it hasn't gotten that bad.

JO BOO

I would bet the late gun seasons will produce less this year, and will decline until they do away them. Numbers were better this season(gun and bow) versus the last 2, because crops were out this year. Numbers will start and continue to fall if IL just keeps handing out tags. Most people I talk to shot one of the only deer they saw this past gun season.

Kid

Here's another thought. Since the IDNR has done away with check stations and gone to "call in" how many deer have been killed, not tagged, and not checked in? I would assume it would be way more than the IDNR had anticipated when they did away with the "in-person" check stations.

lifesadrag

Don't see where that makes a difference. If your not going to check deer in I guess you could just bypass the check station.

Tracker II

I have friends who hunt on public land in southern Illinois and the past couple of years were on par with their past history.

I stopped hunting with them and went instead to my friend's farm the past two years. Last year, the crops weren't in and I didn't see squat. This year, we saw deer - a lot of deer. My buddy said that he's seen more deer on his farm this year than ever before.

So from my perspective, there is no problem. But Illinois is a big state and isolated observations really do nothing to indicate the overall population.