North Central Illinois Hunting
 

Hello all I am having a hard time to find a place to hunt. The only places I seem to find is farmers wanting hundreds of dollars to hunt there land or a public park where I PRAY I get a shot at a lottery. Is it impossible to just go out and hunt. I'm getting off the grid here and spending money for tags etc., fee to hunt somewhere, fee to process, Jezz might as well just go to the store by the time I'm done my per lb. isn't worth it. Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Are you talking about deer? turkey? waterfowl? something else? How far are you willing to travel to hunt? Bow or gun?
As for the economics of it, you're probably never going to hunt meat around here as cheap as you'd pay for it at the store. I like to hunt, and I spend a fair amount of money doing it. The meat is a bonus, and it helps offset some of the costs. If I golfed, I'd probably spend just as much money over the course of a year, and wouldn't have the meat to show for it. And if you want to get some of your costs down, learn to process your own animal. I enjoy it, and it's not that hard. There are plenty of videos on Youtube that demonstrate how.

I have to agree with Murdy. If I put a dollar amount on what I spend trying to kill a deer it probably would be 10X that would I pay for beef at the store. Stands, equipment, crops left up for the animals, gas, the list goes on and on. I've had people say that they want t take up hunting to get cheap meet. I laugh at them and say "Venison is the most expensive meat you will find if you start hunting". Its not about the meat for me at all, just getting out.

There are state run spots to hunt in Illinois if you are serious. It all depends on how far you want to drive to get to them. That is deer though, not sure what you are looking to hunt.

Try being an IL resident with a spot to hunt that doesn't get many deer, who moves out of state... I can no longer afford to go hunting to not see deer. I only hunt WI now.

:(