Illinois is a case-study I think a book could be written about!!!!
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Im in the boat of let them shoot what ever they want, whatever gets them excited and makes them want to hunt. If its a lame uneventful hunt the chances of them wanting to do it again are slim. So i guess im guilty of doing everything possible to make sure that we will see deer and have opportunities at deer.
Agreed. What Illinois is doing to the deer hunting is based on short term gains and more revenue. Allowing unlimited out of state tags, crossbows, straight wall cartridges next year, and nonresidents to take 2 bucks are all designed to bring in more hunters, and more money. In the long run it's a losing game and Illinois will become worse and worse for mature bucks over time. I wonder what Illinois will do when the state becomes an average whitetail state and hunters go elsewhere? I'm in a well above average neighborhood in Illinois and it is becoming more difficult every year to get mature bucks on my farm. They are getting shot mostly now with crossbows when they are 2 and 3 years old. It's a frustrating situation for guys trying to hunt mature bucks, and it will continue to get worse over time unless major changes take place.Illinois is a case-study I think a book could be written about!!!!
3x the cover of iowa. It used to produce more giants than probably any state. Perfect mix of ag/best soils in world & timber. Overall it has a better foundation than iowa due to more cover.
It went from being the “top tier elite state” to mediocre. Clearly the bottom line of what happened is: the best 2-3 year olds get pummeled every season. Why it occurs & how to reverse that are not that complex.
Of course, like any state, you can find neighborhoods well managed that still produce giants. The KEY there is this happens anywhere by people saying “screw how the state or regular neighborhoods dictate things, we are gonna take it into our own hands to manage it better than the everyday area”. Coops, whatever you want to call them…. Usually pop up in response to bad regulations & hunting quality decline. It’s unfortunate because we know what it takes for hunting to be exceptional state-wide. Where EVERYONE wins on average. Vs only on the places that buck the crap regs.
IL will always produce SOME 200’s due to the short gun season + perfect whitetail habitat + guys that limit the killing. That state could blow up to better opportunities for EVERYONE & produce far more mature bucks if they went to a one buck rule. Maybe moved gun back a week. IL was amazing. Could be again but the hunters, voters & citizens would have to prioritize the resource just barely ahead of the $. & don’t misunderstand…. The $ would still be there. Heck, if they made it a one buck system or anything to improve the hunting - it actually would bring in MORE $!!!! When common sense takes ahold in IL (long shot & take some time, but it’s possible!!!!) that state could go back to being balanced, awesome, producing many 200” deer again & it COULD beat out iowa by a long shot. Illinois COULD have an amazing deer herd & premium hunting but the management of the resource has the same “great minds” behind it that run Chicago
POTENTIAL is the key word!!!! Wasted potential is the current key words 90% of states have adopted. Doesn’t mean it needs to be like that forever!!! Sorry…. Rant over. For now.
My opinion is this- Youth can shoot bucks during youth season. The moment its a different season, they should be limited to does... Now, I am not well versed in youth yet, but I know there were several people in my area that had their kids out in November with Rifles since it was "youth season" (no idea if thats truly illegal or...again, wont be well versed until my kids are old enough)... again, my opinion, you get out of September, it should be does only for those youth tags...just simply my opinion on that piece of it.
Yes iowa. The dads said it was legal cause youth tags were good for all seasons. Said weapons didn’t matter since youth tag. Just a loophole that obviously can be exploited (at the time we had no game officer for 3 counties)
It’s hard to do but next time call the DNR and let them sort things out
We did call (me and the neighbor). That’s how we found out there wasn’t a local officer at the time. We were told it would be really hard to follow up at the time due to work load. Since then- we have a new officer finally that lives 3 miles away
Thats not how it works. If somone is taking their kid out in November with a rifle they are poaching.
From a father of 4 that all participate in the youth program:
