IDNR does nothing for the 2014/15 DEER SEASONS. UNBELIEVABLE!!!
 

IDNR made no changes for the 2014/15 Deer Season after being hit hard by EHD for 2 years.. The Whitetail Deer Alliance attempted to help DNR, but all efforts were for nothing.. I believe the DNR Director Marc Miller is going to go down in history for destroying what was one of the best Deer herds in the country to one of the worst! You can now see outfitters who once had 140-150" minimum scrambling to stay afloat and dropping their minimums to 120-130 inches. Spoke to "Pete Switzer", past President of Illinois Taxidermy Association, and he is in disbelief..., his once "Whitetail Deer" only taxidermy shop (due to volume of bucks being brought in.), has now had to take on "African Game" to help his lost revenue.
I can't believe people are going to pay the extremely costly permit price's in order to hunt in Illinois (especially Central-Illinois)... Take a look at Pike, nationally recognized for it's deer, now in dire-straits! You can call any taxidermy shop in the county and ask them about how they've been affected and you will hear how dismal it has been and you can do that in each county west to east (centrally). I just can't believe after all the complaints by business' and hunters that the DNR has just sat on their hands. I am thanking the god, that I had not bought property a few years back for deer hunting purposes, because I can see wooded acre prices dropping like a rock quickly.. I can say I personally am buying 1 archery permit (via-mail), 1 permit for firearm and don't know if I will be buying a muzzleloader permit, that's half of the permits I normally buy.

Had no idea there was that bad of a problem in Illinois.

Sounds like a carbon copy of Michigan, especially in the SW section where I am

The Libs run your state wouldn't hunt there just for the simple reason of not wanting to give them my tax dollars.

From what I've been told by buds who lease in IL and a couple who actually have an outfitting biz up there, the disease DID really hammer them. BUT I can't help but think that the overwhelming pressure essentially EVERYWHERE in IL has had to have SOME KIND of affect on the trophy herd as well???

You can't turn a tv show on, pick up a magazine or read online about deer hunting without the vast majority of it being about ILLINOIS!!! I swear it seems like EVERYONE is either up there or on their way across the river to KY!

Big deer (150+ class) bucks are tough enough to produce as it is, when you start talking about 170+ that mark gets even HIGHER and then all of the sudden over the last couple of years 190" is talked about like they are almost expected! NOWHERE ELSE in whitetail country is constantly hammered yet still expected to produce these animals!

Pike county is no where near dire straights. The outfitters that are crying are worse than the disease IMO.

How many thousands of bucks did they think they were going to be able to sell before there were consequences?

Exactly, outfitters are the ones yelling and screaming more than anyone about this. Anyone who basis their income on bragging about large bucks are the ones that the most worried. I hear so much complaining about over harvesting and such. If you want to bring the deer herd back, here is what needs to happen.

1) We need a normal summer and no EHD, if we have no EHD for a few years then we will be on the right track.

2) Don't shoot does. If we get 15,000 hunters to shoot one less deer we will bounce back too. If we shoot 15,000 less deer for the next three years we should be back to a decent population as well.

3) Start shooting or trapping coyotes! Over the past few years I have seen a huge jump in the coyote population, if you don't have that many deer, get out there and trap or call in coyotes and kill them. There are so many people who don't let anyone hunt their land for anything but if they would let someone in there to trap or kill coyotes it would help out immensely.

4) Plant food plots, keep crops in and make sure you have good bedding cover.

I was out scouting last weekend in Central Illinois and this was by far the most deer i've seen in a long time as well as the most deer sign. I will say, it was the most unusual spots for deer sign as well. There was more in the thick bedding cover than i've ever seen in Spring scouting. It leads me to believe, deer had altered patterns this year. I even checked a camera I left out all winter. I had thousands of pics of deer, a couple dozen bucks and endless amounts of does. They stuck in thick during daylight more than ever.

Driving back at sunset, over the course of three miles I probably saw 100 deer in the fields and they were spread out all over the place, not just "yarded up".

I know a lot of places in Illinois that still have a very good deer population. I talked to a lot of people who still say their land is holding a lot of deer. What I have learned are the people that have deer are the ones that have food plots, work on their bedding cover and leave a percentage of their crops out. The ones I do hear get mad are the ones that hunt/own land and do nothing to help the deer herd. They plant an acre of food at most and have all the crops taken out. People need to realize that combines are A LOT more efficient than they were 10 to 15 years ago. They don't leave near the amount of beans/corn behind that they used to. These deer don't have the food that they did before.

I'll admit the deer population is down, but people need to realize, we have a much higher coyote population which is effecting deer populations. We also have much more efficient farming equipment, therefor, deer that were on your land years before are going to someone else's land because they either leave crops or have a combine that is less efficient.

I support the whitetail alliance, but people need to quit just blaming the state. The IDNR is ran by a bunch of morons, I won't disagree with that at all BUT deer hunters need to realize a lot has changed in the last 10 years when it comes to the land we hunt. I really wish people would look in the mirror and say "What can I do to help?' Supporting the Alliance is great, but its a drop in the bucket. Plant more food plots, leave standing crops, go out and shoot and trap coyotes, improve your bedding are and pray we don't have EHD again. If you have neighbors that shoot everything, do everything you can to keep the deer on your land. Give them better food, better cover and ample water.

There is my rant, I'm just tired of hearing people blaming others for EVERYTHING. There is plenty hunters can still do but they aren't because they are either lazy or expect the state to do everything. I know there are a handful of hunters who have a low population that do a lot to help the deer population but I know a lot more that go out and hunt just gun season, hunt the same stand and then complain they aren't seeing anything.

Rockport, I'm pretty sure you hunt Pike and you shoot some nice deer. I bet its because you manage your deer pretty well. Always good to see. I've talked to some of the big hunting real estate companies in Illinois and they say that Pike is now the king of the 130ish bucks but no where near the 150s and above that used to roam there. They say the problem is the outfitters, every out of stater comes there to shoot the biggest deer of their life and 95% of them, a 130 is the biggest buck so they will shoot the first one that walks out so not as many bucks are growing beyond that.

Don't forget GMO seeds and modern chemicals. Not just the efficient combines. But I do think EHD and to many doe tags is also a big problem

Oh the outfitters are terrible. Sometimes I generalize so I'll point out that I realize there are some folks making a living doing what they love and doing it right so props to those people but greed is king. The big outfitters are a joke. I watch them from my stands. They put hunter after hunter after hunter in stand after stand after stand. Way over hunting. Immense pressure then when the bucks turn smart and nocturnal they think they are all dead......the dumb ones don't stand a chance.

I don't do anything special really. We have some clover planted and leave some crops but I mostly just let them do what they do.

The deer held tight until dark during the gun season. Like you mentioned I hunted and didn't see anything then I'd see 100 deer on my way home.

I killed a 168.5 inch buck in Adams county this year and a 10 point in pike.....I also botched an opportunity on a big boy in pike. I kill a 150-170 inch buck pretty much every year but its never easy and its never been easy.

I say if you think we need to shoot less deer then shoot less deer. We don't need the government to hold our hands. EHD sucks but its natural. It comes and it goes. Like you said a couple regular summers and its no problem but you just can't have outfitters putting hunters on every acre and think its going to be easy to get shots at big bucks in the day light. If there were more big bucks to sell outfitters would sell more big bucks.

Having mature bucks gallivanting around in the daylight and trucking hunters in by the thousands obviously has a shelf life.

I'm not really against outfitting but its out of control. Its one thing to outfit because its your passion and your actually giving people the hunts they pay for but man these guys are just money grabbing and ripping people off

Thank you Demo 92, I forgot about that too. People don't realize its not like it was in the mid 90s because farming practices have changed dramatically. GMO most likely has a big effect too. Coupled with all the other things that have changed with modern farming, more predators and more advanced hunting equipment and correct me if I'm wrong, weren't deer hunting hours sunrise to sunset in the recent past? I may be wrong with that one though.

Personally, i think there is over hunting going on in certain areas but the main culprit for the recent deer decline is the points mentioned above and EHD. As I said before, we just need EHD to go away and we'll rebound fast.

For me, I'll buy the same amount of tags as I usually do. I'll try to take a doe at one of my spots right outside the city of Chicago where we have way to many deer and then have my two buck tags. I always say, first buck over 125" for me it a good buck and I'll take him. I'll have that second buck tag in my pocket in case I see anything over 140". If for some reason my first buck is 140" I'll only shoot something at the 150" or above mark for my second buck or one of the few cull bucks we have running around. My absolute max on deer to take is three and I have only done it once in the past 15 years. Two us plenty but If I do get VERY lucky and take three, they won't go to waste, that is for sure. We still are lucky enough to have a lot of deer and my the looks of it, I only found one doe and one small buck that didn't make it through the winter and the buck I think was a coyote kill last fall.

Two and a half months until I put cameras out and a few weeks until we start seeing the antlers start to grow for next fall. Can't wait!

Oh ya, Rockport, Help a fellow experienced hunter out….a 150 to 170 every year?!? We have them running around but I always seem to either have them just out of range or they catch a swirling wind. I hunt hills and ridges so wind is a big factor for me. Are you a mobile hunter or hunt fixed stands? Any good hints would be appreciated!

Always fixed stands

I hunt the terrain. Most of the obvious sign is made at night.

here is something you will probably think sounds stupid. Imagine where water would travel........that is the path of least resistance.

Give it a shot. There won't always be deer sign just try it anyway.

Imagine your feeding area flooded......what path would the water take from the feeding area to the bedding area or the other way around? Try hunting there

on a side note for trophy management, I think we need to spread the word about passing up on BIG 2.5yo, I'd rather a guy take a 6pt or 8pt 2.5yo+... and get those poorer genetics out of the pool than taking big 10pt 2.5yo... I would suspect most BIG deer in IL are 2.5-3.5yo 10pts... if we could get them spreading their genes longer we could really see some monsters out there.

Rockport, I'll have to take a look at my topos and keep that in mind when I scout. I'm always looking for new ideas to try. I know we have the big bucks running around, I just seem to always come up just a little short with the true giants.

Saluki, I completely agree. We have a lot of basket rack 6 and 8 points and even some good 2.5 year old 9 and 10 points. This is the first year that no one shot any of those up and comers. I'll be curious to see what next year holds. I've already done a day of shed hunting and since the winter kills were very minimal I think we should have some good bucks this fall. I don't think people realize the kind of jump a 2.5 year can make to a 3.5 year old.

Its basically just hunting funnels,pinch points,shelves etc. Putting those things ahead of obvious deer sign that was likely made at night.

These boys will often sneak by right under your nose. They will be just off of where you think they will be.

Did QDM hunters get banned...
 

from hunting for five years? They're the perfectionist. And that EHD ain't so perfect.