I was wondering why Illinois is a shotgun only state. It seems like the state is very rural (except for Chicago and surrounding areas).

My guess is that most of the state is flat and the trajectory of a rifle could be very dangerous.

But the are not just shotgun. We opened up the use of pistols state wide during the shotgun season this year.

I lived in Ill. for 40+ years and I noticed that the rural portion of the state was still quite well populated. Drive down any rural road and you will notice that homes are not that far apart. I believe that the Conservation Dept. determined that high powered rifles, due to the distance those rounds could carry may cause injuries and by limiting the firearms to shotguns would reduce the distance an errant shot would carry.
One thing it has not affected is the harvest numbers of deer taken. One other thing the Cons. Dept. did was to limit the number of hunters in any one county, and this, it seems, was also determined by the population in each county.
Deer density is still a problem, and they have set up special hunts in some of the state parks and again they have ;made a choice to allow only pistols to be used, again limiting the distance errent shots would carry.
Illinois also has a large population that are anti-gun, which shows in the fact that this state is one of the last holdouts against allowing the people to have a concealed carry law.

Russ

Perhaps PA is more liberal with their rifle areas due to the hilly terain.

I live in the part of illinois that has hills (NW). I really have no idea why it is shotgun only. I dont mind though, makes it more challenging and safer. I know some dumb people would take shots at 300 yards on the run in the area i hunt.

25lieb - I know what you' re saying. I shotgun hunted just outside of Loran for 5 or 6 seasons and it' s a madhouse out there. The thing is, it' s a lot of the " good ole' boys" who have the mentality of " it' s brown, it' s down." They shoot in the dark, shoot at running deer, shoot through thick brush, shoot too far away, etc etc. Personally, I got sick of the way some of the guys I hunted with were behaving, so I stay home out there in Lake County and bowhunt during the gun season in the rest of the state.

iowa is the same way, i like it.

If you would hunt here during gun season you would praise that fact that people cannot shoot over 150 yards. People walk around the woods all of the time shooting at anything that gets up and runs. It' s already dangerous, rifle is just asking for trouble. The most dangerous part is the sheer number of hunters out during season.

indianas the same way but i do wish they would allow certain pistol caliber carbines. but then again i hunt at distances of 25yards so my pistol and i are doing fine

Jzarr, you get to hunt down in loran with the army huh? I hunt north of lena, there isn' t too many people around me so its not bad up there, but usually on sundays of both seasons i go to loran, and do some drives.