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-   -   Archery harvest in Illinois down significantly! (https://www.huntingnet.com/forum/midwest/386105-archery-harvest-illinois-down-significantly.html)

whitetailcrazy 10-20-2013 04:43 PM

Couldn't agree with you more.
 

Originally Posted by bigbuck57 (Post 4090657)
Didn't see anything mentioned about Wisconsin. Iowa is much harder to get a tag for nonresidents especially archery, Illinois is under subscribed. Kentucy and ohio are both one buck states. I have hunted Illinois for many years as a non-resident, I think its a great state to hunt but not near as good as a few years ago.


Illinois is not the state it once was with quality of deer... Indiana is surpassing Illinois by leaps and bounds with their 1 Buck limit. You can see on the TV shows how they are targeting Indiana... Illinois was all about the almighty dollar and not the quality of the deer herd. I have a few friends from Michigan who had deer hunted in Illinois for years and now say why waste their time and money on average deer, 1 has moved on to Iowa and the other to Indiana, much closer to home and much cheaper!

Murdy 10-20-2013 06:10 PM


Originally Posted by whitetailcrazy (Post 4090750)
Illinois is not the state it once was with quality of deer... Indiana is surpassing Illinois by leaps and bounds with their 1 Buck limit. You can see on the TV shows how they are targeting Indiana... Illinois was all about the almighty dollar and not the quality of the deer herd. I have a few friends from Michigan who had deer hunted in Illinois for years and now say why waste their time and money on average deer, 1 has moved on to Iowa and the other to Indiana, much closer to home and much cheaper!

Was Illinois public land ever that good, or was it only good if you dished out big dollars for an outfitter or lease? I'm a fairly recent transplant (from northern Wisconsin) and hunt public land. My biggest complaint here is not quality of deer but access and opportunity to hunt.

henson59 10-21-2013 11:17 AM

I have seen many great bucks taken from public land in IL. As everybody has said before, you have to do your homework double time for public land. You need to go deeper and find the spots the average hunter is to lazy to go hunt.

Honestly I feel like the low harvest numbers have to do with the EHD out break last year along with the fact that the crop harvest started later this year. The past few years there wasn't near as much standing crops for the first three weeks of October as there was this year.

Zim 10-21-2013 09:55 PM


Originally Posted by whitetailcrazy (Post 4090750)
Illinois is not the state it once was with quality of deer... Indiana is surpassing Illinois by leaps and bounds with their 1 Buck limit. You can see on the TV shows how they are targeting Indiana... Illinois was all about the almighty dollar and not the quality of the deer herd. I have a few friends from Michigan who had deer hunted in Illinois for years and now say why waste their time and money on average deer, 1 has moved on to Iowa and the other to Indiana, much closer to home and much cheaper!

Lived in both these states 50 years. Owned land in Indiana. Quality has improved a lot there since OBR, but two weeks+ shotgun season in prime rut, will never allow it to surpass Illinois. Much less the much longer muzzleloader season. Illinois has just 3 days shotgun in November, and that is just the tail end of the rut, always after the peak.

Zim 10-21-2013 10:02 PM

I think I was extremely fortunate in my special hunt area this year as far as EHD. It was so dry 100% of all the wetlands went completely dry. I assume killing all the midges? All the GE and Bing Map aerials from taken earlier showed plenty of surface water. The deer now are getting their drinks from farm ponds on adjacent properties, but they bed on my hunt area. Deer population is very high. :)

whitetailcrazy 10-22-2013 01:50 PM

The numbers are out till the 20th of October and were still low. Here's the link..http://heartland.ehclients.com/image...Oct_Sheet1.pdf

Zim- Indiana had put out more B&C entries as of last year, then Illinois did. To think that Indiana will not surpass Illinois is foolish. With a 1 buck limit, you shoot a 6 pt. your done for the year, regardless whether you shot it with your bow, gun or muzzle loader... Even thou Indiana's gun season is much longer than Illinois, people don't go out for the entire time, they go at the time there able to, whereas we are forced to a 7 day time frame of the states choosing.

Zim 10-22-2013 05:52 PM

wtc, No problem. Where is a link to that stat? What about Pope & Young numbers between the two. That is a better indicator. If it's the same as when I lived there, Indiana had a total of 32 gun days, a full half which occurred during prime rut. That is brutal. In the 90's Indiana was the 2nd worst P&Y state in the Midwest in terms of P&Y's taken per hunter issued tags, next to Michigan.

whitetailcrazy 10-23-2013 02:28 AM

I'm trying to find the link to the Outdoor Life Issue which posted the rankings. Once a buck surpasses 170" it can be scored B&C & P&Y, that's why I didn't bother with P&Y because 140" buck is not what I consider a monster, that is unless it's an 8 pointer!

http://wiredtohunt.com/2013/06/03/to...-be-surprised/

whitetailcrazy 10-23-2013 02:31 AM

ZIM, I am not trying to be disrespectful, just stating, numbers which I have read. In this post it does not mention OHIO.. Last year OHIO posted some big numbers, when I find the article, I will post the link.

Bowhunter2001 10-23-2013 08:38 AM


Originally Posted by whitetailcrazy (Post 4090750)
Illinois is not the state it once was with quality of deer... Indiana is surpassing Illinois by leaps and bounds with their 1 Buck limit. You can see on the TV shows how they are targeting Indiana... Illinois was all about the almighty dollar and not the quality of the deer herd. I have a few friends from Michigan who had deer hunted in Illinois for years and now say why waste their time and money on average deer, 1 has moved on to Iowa and the other to Indiana, much closer to home and much cheaper!

I agree. EHD has taken a toll, but Illinois hasn't cared about the herd for years, just the $$$. I have a farm in Fayette and every year I see less and less deer. When I first bought my farm I used to see 5 to 10 deer an evening. Now I get excited to see one deer! I have many food plots to entice the deer, but if the deer are scarce, the food plots are empty. Illinois lets too many deer get taken. Unlimited tags on does with a bow for the almighty $$$.


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