Advice for Fla Hunter Lookin to hunt in Iowa/Illinois
 

So guys I hunt public land in florida where the deer don't get over 130 lbs. Ive been considering doing a bow hunt on a public management area in either Iowa or Illinois. I have no clue where to start. How do I go about hunting them? Do i have to apply a year in advance? If anyone could point me in the right direction it wud be great. Not lookin for gps coordinates but maybe just a tract to look into. In return I could help sumeone out if they ever wanted to hunt public land osceolas.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources website (dnr.illinois.gov) is your best source of information. I believe you should be able to buy tags over the counter once they are available. Please check to be sure as I am unfamiliar with non-resident permits. At a minimum, you will need a hunting license, a habitat stamp, and a deer permit (either sex or doe/fawn only). All the above can be purchased on the website. Hunter Education course may apply depending upon your birth date.

Jim Edgar in west central IL. is a very large tract of land in great whitetail country. Shawnee National Forest in southern, IL. is even bigger. Both offer free public access. Jim Edgar will likely have a few more rules than Shawnee. For example, designated parking areas. You will need to cart or drag your deer out of there as they do not allow vehicular traffic.

I am pretty sure deer are over the counter, with doe tags maybe regulated. That is how MI and WI is. I hunted once in IN, don't remember how doe tags went.

Maybe here, or other forums with regioanal section with people from those areas, is probably the best place to read up. I am sure you can download a pdf from DNR on regulations and seasons. Some states have different rules about shooting times.


Getting away from people is the big thing in many areas. Closer you are to urban area more people or out of towners.

States also have different age requirement regarding if you need hunter safety. Some have exclusion base on age.

I am guessing amount of orange varies, or what must be worn.

States vary on size of buck. Which shoud all be in reg book you can download.


One tough thing is getting good info from people. Nobody likes strangers coming into their area.


The GPS maps that Cabelas sells have state maps, that show private and public land. Useful. Some forest roads show up. Thouh they may not show all the detail or how far they go.

Thanks guys for the input i will check out dnr website and go from there