Illinois whitetail suggestions appreciated

Joined
Dec 5, 2015
Messages
6
My younger brother is in central Illinois (Champaign-Urbana) and has had a few rough seasons of trying to get an archery deer on public land. He's not necessarily looking for a buck, and would be thrilled to take any legal deer he can. If anybody has any suggestions on places to hunt or tips I can pass on to him, that would be great.

Thanks!
 

elkyinzer

WKR
Joined
Sep 9, 2013
Messages
1,257
Location
Pennslyvania
Be willing to drive an hour plus to find good public parcels away from cities. Don't expect to find good deer populations or solitude with easy access.

Scout, scout, and scout some more. I annually spend 2-3x as many hours scouting than I do in the deer stand. Now through January is the best time to scout. Take a shotgun and mix in some small game hunting. Don't get complacent and always be looking for greener pastures. Deer populations are dynamic and although a lot of the same habitats hold deer year after year, I am constantly trying to find areas where their population is high.

Get in the woods, the thicker the better. I see so many beginners set up on field edges or open woods because that's what TV hunters do. Non-suicidal public land deer are not killed in fields. You'll bump some bedded deer but it's what you have to do to succeed on public.

Be mobile, don't set up 1 or 2 stands and over hunt them.
 

Osprey

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Mar 6, 2016
Messages
127
How much work is he willing to put in? I hunt public land in Indiana and I see a ton of hunters that all of a sudden on Oct 1 come out of the woodwork and want to have instant success getting on deer, quite a few of those hunters pick poor stand locations for heavily hunted deer possibly due to the mass media of whitetails showing gross misrepresentation of the deer hunting but you have to rem they are hunting managed areas for large bucks. Pressured deer are different best way to know if your hunting pressured deer is if your seeing 2.5 yo+ bucks in harvested crops in daylight your hunting realatively unpressured deer because rarely will a 2.5yo buck in high pressure areas make that mistake because hunters have tried to kill him sinces hes been out of spots vs private areas that only harvest mature bucks. Good news is once you learn to take those pressured bucks you can pretty much hunt anywhere and do good the opposite is not true for the guys filming most would be lost on heavily hunted deer.

Illinois has a lot of good public opportunities I woudl highly suggest looking in the areas away from high populations and focus on central western and southern part of state. How far is he willing to drive? Get out and scout feeding bedding transition areas and set up as close to the bedding areas as possible right now. Stay mobile I generally hunt with a climber and also have a lone wolf with sticks so I can hunt just about any tree height etc. Also I added a lot of silencing stuff on my stands so I can set up as quietly as possbile. Theres a plethora of reasons why you will not be successful public land deer hunting east of the mississippi is a lot harder than people realize. A lot of guys aren't shelling out thousands for a lease if they were able to take a P & Y deer on public or have good hunts so that right there tells you that most hunters struggle on public. Quite a few guys really find it tough to take any deer on public around where I hunt especially an antlered deer so hes def not alone with struggling to fill tags. You can find a plethora of public land info online some good some bad experience will tell you whats good info. Being in Illnois your already in one of the best states to hunt public east of the Miss especially for mature bucks just hunt hard stick with it. Also in post season to spring green up this is prime time to scout new areas and learn.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Mar 12, 2018
Messages
24
Location
Northern Illinois
This all good advice but there are programs out there that are very under advertised and subsequently under used. I've been private land hunting for a long time and have had great success. This year I was at Gander Mountain during those ridiculous store closing sales they had and ran into a fellow that gave me some awesome info. Forest Preserves! That's right, forest preserves have hunting programs to control deer populations. You just have to go inquire about them. I had no idea. I called my local forest preserve police department and they provided me all of the information for this program. You have to have a hunter safety card, and you have to qualify with your bow before you get approved for the program. Basically you get an entire preserve issued to you two weeks before season starts so you can hang your stands, and two weeks after season ends so you can remove them. All harvests have to be reported following all state laws, in addition to the preserve rules. In my county if you shoot more does you get preference points for the following year. There is a fee...for my county roughly 280 dollars per "team". Well split that 3 ways and you have a couple hundred acres to hunt...worth it.

Have him call his forest preserve district and see if they have a program.
 
Joined
Jan 23, 2014
Messages
805
Location
Wisconsin
Public Land hunting means getting close to bedding areas. Especially if there are a lot of other hunters. PM me, I have a few areas that I use to hunt in college, if he is willing to drive.
 

Thedeerfarmer

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jan 16, 2018
Messages
115
Location
Polo, IL and Fort Collins, CO
Illinois public is a hard one. There are undoubtedly some great areas to hunt, but it depends on what he is trying. There are a large number of public acres near me. Upwards of 2,500 wooded acres. However, there is so much pressure a few places that 200 hunters might shoot one deer all season. You have to be willing to scout before season, find them, and get away from people. When I drive past a state park to get to one of my farms, I'll see 25+ hunters hanging their stands right over the road opening day of shotgun season.
 

Elkhntr08

WKR
Joined
Nov 3, 2016
Messages
1,078
PM me. We have a farm in the Marshal area that we need to take a few does off of.
 
OP
B
Joined
Dec 5, 2015
Messages
6
Totally missed this thread for a while. PM sent. Thanks for the suggestions. Forwarded them all along to my brother!
 
Joined
Mar 12, 2018
Messages
24
Location
Northern Illinois
Some Forest Preserves have programs designed so that the draw winner can have an entire forest preserve assigned to them for the duration of hunting season. I'm in northern Illinois and those programs are all over here. Search his local county forest preserve district and see if they have such a thing or try neighboring counties but be ready to pay that out of district fee.
 

N2TRKYS

WKR
Joined
Apr 17, 2016
Messages
3,954
Location
Alabama
I haven't hunted Illinois in several years. I use to hunt the southern part of IL. I'd like to get back up there before too long.
 

Hoythews71

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Oct 4, 2015
Messages
138
I know it sucks and the odds are low, but knock on some doors, especially in the rural areas. I was stationed up in Great Lakes, IL for 3 years. Very little public land except for during late season. I ended up sending letters to 108 residences in my time there and made visits or follow up phone calls to every one of them, and I received written permission for 2 farms, both within 20 minutes from my house. The hunting wasn't great, but I would see a few does and at least one real good buck every year.
 
Top