2009 ILLINOIS DEER SEASON

[bowtough]

Well I see in the Mattoon Il. Journal Gazette newapaper,that during our two gun seasons,our beloved politicians have decided to add on a number of days to the seasons. This will only prove to be an added pressure to our already diminishing Il deer herd! When they took these decisions out of the hands of our professional DNR, and put them into the greedy crooked hands of our law makers,it was a sign of our times! Lets face it,they do not have the rights of the Il sportsman in mind,but are acting upon the interests of the insurance companys with their money generated lobbyists pushing for the complete annihilation of our deer herds. When there are no longer any deer to hunt,how will they make up for the lost revenue generated each year by the sportsman of Il who spend their hard earned dollars on liceneses deer stamps camo gear,bows,arrows,etc,etc etc.I am saddened by this news on top of everything else going on in our world today,mostly brought on by the terrible greed we see by people elected,by us,who we thought would represent our best interests,instead of their own selfish greed.Servants of the people indeed,I cannot understand how these people can sleep at night!
     :(  The future of the Il bowhunter does not look good my friends.

[mdwatts]

The trend to take the final authority away from the DNR seems to be rampant throughout North American.  This is not a good thing.  It all becomes the power of the lobyist, rather than sound conservation.

[C Kerley]

I am from IL and continued to buy my out of state license until they raised it out of reach.  My humble suspicion beleives it has more to do with the lobbying of the "guides" who can charge crazy prices for hunts.  I would guess there's a bigger $$$ for attracting more gun hunters.  

I hate to see all that though, I USED to buy an out of state deer tag to go home on the holidays and hunt with my family and friends.

[blind one]

More people hunt with guns than bows, Thus creating more deer running from the woods and getting hit by the cars. I hate just driving during gun seasons. The deer become nocturnal and are even harder to see on the roads.

[BillW]

I live in Northern IL. With little to no public land near me, I hunted public land in WI. Eventually, I bought land there. The story is basically the same up there... Fewer deer harvested this year. DNR has a lot of excuses but the truth is according to their estimates there are still too many deer. I heard a guy at my club say that he either read or heard some DNR guy say “No matter how many deer there are. There are always too few deer for deer hunters”. That rubbed me wrong. I am no fair weather hunter but I do like to see deer at least when I hunt.

By the way, when I did hunt public land in IL it was at Castle Rock State Park. Thanks to Gov. Blogo that spot is to close. This is beautiful ground. Hilly River bottom country with Sandstone points….. It will be forever closed and the public won’t be allowed to access……. That is just WRONG!

Bill

[jonsimoneau]

No doubt that the Illinois government is corrupt to the max.  I had heard that they were considering adding days to the November gun season, but that it was not a done deal.  They seem determined to destroy what is one of the best deer herds in the nation.  Paul Shelton has even said that adding another gun day during November is not a good idea, but they don't seem to care much about his opinion.  I sure hope this does not happen, as it will certainly have an impact on our mature buck population.

[Jason R. Wesbrock]

Bill,

I hope they re-open Castle Rock next year. It was the closest public land for squirrel hunting, and a very scenic property. I'd hate to guess how many small game arrows I've left in the hickory trees north of the main parking lot.

[Mike Lee]

There is not as many deer in Illinois as there was a few years ago. I've been hunting deer since 1975.
I've seen a lot of good land get developed. The sportsmen club I belong to. A golf course was built on the North side and  on the South side a small parcel was made into what they called a tree nursery. Now the deer who lived there became a so called nuisance and are being killed off as such. Some are left to rot. The trails use to be about two inch's deep years ago, now its very poor.I've thought for a long time now the state only cares for the short time profit they can make from tag sales and such.
Sorry for the rant but it just bothers me because I saw my area go from a few deer to great and now poor, because of Greed.

Mike Lee