predator23

hi, i live in dekalb county Illinois and this is my first year having to hunt public land. ive been hunting private land in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin for many years but have lost access to the IL and WI land. there is somewhat of an opportunity to hunt deer between me and Wisconsin but all the land ive looked at seems like it will have a very low success rate due to crowding and easy access all through out. ive finally found a piece of land im going to look into its only 500 acres but i really dont think to many people know about it so i best get to scouting. still though i haven’t seen any opportunities for small game and predators and such which is what i love hunting more than anything. ive never had to hunt public until now and im stumped, please help a fellow hunter out, any info would be greatly appreciated. ive looked into shabbona (couldnt find much info other than seevere crowding) castle rock, cut rock, starved rock, lowden miller, etc and so far it seems that at least in this portion of Illinois they rather you not harvest any game . any info would be great thanks

alleyyooper

I don't know about Illinois but here in Michigan you can hunt public land with good success other than the November fire arm deer season.
Many farmers will give permission to hunt coyotes, foxes and ground hogs readily. We have gained permission to hunt other things (deer not so much a state holiday thing) at these farms after the farmer got to know us and see we left fences and gates as we found them always park where the farmer said for us to and eliminated coyotes and ground hogs.

Al