Have seen Bobcats from my deer stand in Jackson and Union counties.

My farm is in schuyler county and I have never seen one.I talked to our farmer the other day and he said that they are around and he is seeing them all the time ??

When kind of ammunition can you hunt them with? I imagine any shotgun ammo will ruin the pelt

i knew someone that hit one, in Crawford county

I think its only a matter of time before they move north into central Illinois. I'm still not sure if I want them. They are a pretty neat animal to see in the wild but I hear they are great at finding newborn fawns as well.

whiteside county..3 cameras.. 3 different farms..past 5 yrs. never seen one..no pics..no tracks..:confused0024:

Bobcat are not legal to hunt or trap in Illinois according to most recent DNR hunter info.

Wolf, mountain lion and bear are also protected this year.

I have seen one in edwards county

Take this for what it's worth, but last deer season I was sitting in a tree stand in McDonough County IL and I saw something moving at 300 yards that was too big to be a feral cat and too small to be anything else, definitely feline. It was on an alfalfa field for about 5 minutes before it went back into the timber. I say take it for what it's worth because at the time I was looking head on into a freezing rain and a 20mph wind so I couldn't make a positive ID.

With that said there was a bear roaming Northern IL counties earlier this year, a tail cam pic of a Cougar in Yorkville, IL last year, and feral hogs in Fulton County, so I have no doubt there are bobcats roaming throughout the state............and per prior posts they are all specifically protected by the hunting regs (X feral swine during open gun seasons)

Bobcats and cougars are very secretive animals. I've had good hunting property up in northern Michigan since 1973 where there are bobcats and I've never seen one. The closest I've been to even knowing one was around was when I found a doe that had been shot and lost by an archer and it died on my place. A cat had found it, eaten some, and then partially cover it with field debris. I have no doubt that there are bobcats in some areas of IL and probably the further south you go out of the more open agricultural areas the better chance there would probably be of them inhabiting the area.