I do not own land in Indiana, I do own in IL. I would say the land in terms of potential quality of hunting are equal and don’t get me wrong I have been fortunate enough to kill big deer consistently off both. However, in IL I have seen a pretty flat overall herd structure for the last 20 years - not horrible, not the best and the management we do doesn’t seem to help much. I can only attribute it to the fact that IL lets you hammer multiple bucks and really unlimited does. While in Indiana everyone has been forced down this path, thus my neighbors are only whacking 1 130” buck instead of 2. My herd quality has improved tremendously and I am consistently more excited to hunt the IN farms than I am the IL one based on potential!
I 100% agree on the second statement with liberal NR quotas - it has really hit IL hard and the outfitters infiltrated. Iowa has to fight that more than anything, i believe that would be the biggest detriment to the deer quality and obviously the access to hunting. fight that one with all you have!!!
However, be open to some of these other situations, I do think they can have quick impacts when everyone has to make the change!
