Zim

I have hunted Illinois public land as well as 15 other states for over 25 years. The quality totally sucks today compared to when I began, before the regulations were cut down not by the DNR, but special interest groups and corrupt politicians. I myself think wildlife should be managed by professional wildlife managers, not special interest groups and greased politicians. If you seriously think Illinois today is as good as Iowa, you simply have never hunted Iowa.

The more liberal the gun laws are in the rut, the more quality will nose dive. Not rocket science.

hunters_life

You have to treat public land here in Illinois like you do in any other state. You have to get where your typical weekend warriors aren't willing to go. The thicker and nastier and furthest from the parking the better. I see many deer every day year round and even a few really nice bucks but I'm in the Southern part of the state in Wayne county. Don't know where you go but where I live we have an extremely healthy and populous herd. But come deer season they ghost into the thick stuff and dare you to follow. I do completely agree with you about the need for experts and not political idiots being in charge but just because you aren't seeing monster bucks behind every corner doesn't mean they aren't there. They are here and in pretty solid numbers as well. If they weren't, they big hunting guide businesses in the golden triangle would be going broke instead of selling out every year and producing some of the biggest bucks in the country.

Zim

Zim

mrbb

hate to tell you this but its a every changing world, and hunters can move into a new spot every yr, that is the deal on public lands, NO place is YOUIR'S and your's alone
urban expansion is IMO the larger killer of hunting, than any use of a rifle over a shotgun ever will be
farm lands are being LOST, habitat is being lost, wildlife is NOT every where like it once was, due to FOOD, they need to eat 365-24-7, and most public lands do NOT offer that great of food
the main reason why food plots have taken off so well, and WHY private lands tend to be so much better to hunt, the OWNER spend time and money making them better and they then pull, deer off of public POORER quality lands

there are many states that have huge seasons and deer bag limits and use rifles and herd deer numbers have held there own(look at Alabama as one)
your blaming a weapon as a the issue, and its NOT the weapon being used, its the quality of the land the deer have to live on! and how there loosing more and more of it every yr !
you don't like a rifle being used, DON"T use one
DON"T like the crappy public lands and folks showing up
BUY your own land, or GO find and get access to better private lands that have better QUALITY control over, and you will find, ANY weapon being used to NOT be the factor on deer numbers, but its FOOD< cover, water, ALL YR round that matters more!

hunters_life

Well Zim, I have around 10 years and around 20 more states on you. Old man packed me all over the country for elk, moose, whitetail, mule deer, and pretty much everything edible on 4 legs in this grand old country. Yes the deer numbers are lower in some states but as mrbb stated, it has much more to do with urban encroachment than anything at all to do with hunting tools. And I have a little news for you. I am the owner of a smokeless muzzleloader that I am deadly accurate with up to 350 yards so tell me how that is different from me going out with my 06? There are dedicated slug guns such as the Savage 212/220 that many are deadly accurate with out to 200 yards. Most ranges here are from 50-150 yards. Most the deer I've taken here were under 50 yards. As I said earlier, the only reason I myself would use a cartridge rifle here would be bad weather. And my smokeless would pretty much solve that issue since it's a closed system. The use of cartridge rifles will not just magically make more hunters appear in the woods. The sky is not falling.

Zim

hunters_life

Okay, first off I live in Illinois as I mentioned not once but twice. Wayne county to be specific. And again, I see more deer on a daily basis than a lot of folks will see in a lifetime of hunting. Heck I have 10 or 12 in my back yard nearly every morning. And I see you are one of those that thinks only big rack bucks count from your statement about Bama. Southern whitetail, with the exception of Texas, don't tend to grow monster racks or large bodies for that matter. Colder climates generate bigger deer. It's the law of nature. And Bama has close to 2 million deer in the state. I don't hunt for racks. Could really care less for 5 year+ bucks. The meat from them absolutely sucks compared to a nice fat doe. From a management point of view I typically will let a 3yo buck with an impressive rack walk because a healthy rack is a sign of good genetics but I'll smack a 3 year old with a spindly 6 point crown in a heartbeat. As far as Indiana goes, I was just through there a couple of weeks ago down in Terre Haute and on a quick walk through of a buddies property, approximately 270 acres, I saw around 20 deer. All looked fat and sassy and seemed not to have suffered too badly from the pretty harsh winter temps we had around here. I haven't hunted in Kansas in quite a few years but I have friends that live there in the Cimarron/Dodge area that seem to have no problems at all filling tags.
mrbb gave you a pretty much dead on piece of information, public land hunting is becoming a thing of the past. Deer are being attracted to places like mine and several others by food plots and generally well tended land. Food is better. Plain and simple fact.

mrbb

I think your ranting about TROPHY bucks and NOT deer numbers in general
and your all worked up about not seeing huge bucks every where over worries about a deer healthy herd or not !

I will say this and you take it how ever you wish
PA< went from being one of the HIGHEST deer number states out there, we had so many deer it was crazy, and Pope and Young bucks were about as rare million dollar winning lottery tickets!
e HAD rifles, and basically archery and flintlock for use as weapons(hand guns too in GUN season)

the state was super slow to realize having SO many deer was BAD for the habitat that the forest and basically land every where was damaged to the point it was causing critical damage to many things!
SO< after the light bulb came on they dropped deer numbers a LOT, its been almost 20 yrs now and the damage from all the excessive amounts of deer, many places are still not recovered , habitat is still poor at best in many areas!
BUT to drop them numbers they started using more seasons, more doe tags, and using more weapons, we started allowing inline muzzloaders, rifles in early seasons,
now some places can use semi auto's
the state also started a an antler restriction when they started dropping deer numbers

and know what?
we have less deer for sure
BUT we have more pope and young bucks NOW than at any time in PA" history, with all them rifles and semi's and hand guns and muzzleloaders, X bows and you nae it
SO, what does this mean
CRAP
it just shows that deer numbers has very little to do with BIG bucks
nor does what weapon being used to hunt deer with

what MAKES for BIG bucks, is quality habitat, hunters willing to LET small bucks walk and grow to GET big
it has NOTHING to do with the weapon being used
you surely missed my point ion Alabama
there have several month long gun season liberal deer per DAY allowance and YET they still have a LOT of deer!
THAT was my point, I wasn't saying they have HUGE bucks

BUT on a side note, there too, they have killed MORE pope and young bucks the past 10 yrs than the previous 40 put together!
so, your logic again is failing you by your own words!
you don't like the facts, that HABITAT is what matter s more here than WHAT weapon is being used to kill deer!
there are folks that kill BIG bucks every yr in every state on PRIVATE lands, that are MADE to grow big bucks
stop trying to blame a weapon for deer health issue's. a bucks antlers size or-overall health of an eco system that the deer live in
HUMANS have the bigger overall impact on this
self control
DON"T shoot a young small buck if you want a big one, HUNT where there can age to get big!

its NOT the weapon that decides what BUCK to shoot, its the human holding it!
deer numbers will always be based on the amount of land and the quality of the land that it can support
too many deer on poor land makes for poor quality deer, and since we have less land for deer to live on now than ever
what do you expect?

Bucktail_Bob

This bill does not include the use of all rifle calibers.. Needs to be .30 or larger, any bottleneck cartridge cannot exceed 1.4”. Any straight wall case is allowed.
I believe Indiana just passed a law similar to this not too long ago. Illinois tried to pass a similar bill a few years back.