LAST UPDATED: May 8th, 2015
We have been getting a lot of personal calls from all our hunting buddies this year that the just can't seem to connect. Well here are what the stats are showing for firearms season here in Illinois. And you know if the firearms numbers are down, the archery numbers are going to be down too.
SPRINGFIELD, IL – Hunters in Illinois harvested a preliminary total of 71,894 deer during the opening weekend of the 2008 Illinois Firearm Deer season, Nov. 21-23, Illinois Department of Natural Resources Acting Director Sam Flood announced today. The second portion of the firearm season will be Dec. 4-7.
The preliminary total for the first three days of the 2008 firearm season compares with the first weekend harvest of 85,490 deer during the 2007 deer season. The top county harvest total was in Pike with 2,194 deer, followed by Adams (1,900), Fulton (1,878), Randolph (1,770), and Jefferson (1,650). The preliminary first-season figures reported for each county include those deer taken on special hunt areas within that county as well as on private land.
"Deer hunters in Illinois once again provided a good deer harvest for the first weekend of the firearm season," said Flood. "We offer some of the best deer hunting opportunity in the world here in Illinois, and the firearm deer season continues to be our most popular hunting season."
Illinois has issued approximately 350,000 firearm deer hunting permits for the 2008 season. Most hunters register their deer harvest online through the IDNR web site or by phoning 1-866-ILCHECK (1-866-452-4325) by 10 p.m. on the day of harvest. Hunters in Boone, DeKalb, Grundy, Kane, LaSalle, McHenry, Ogle, Stephenson and Winnebago counties take their deer to county check stations where IDNR conducts sampling for chronic wasting disease.
"The weather was unseasonably cold to start the season on Friday, but it appears many hunters were in the field enjoying some success on that day and throughout the first weekend of the firearm deer season," said IDNR Forest Wildlife Program Manager Paul Shelton. "Most corn had been harvested, although 10 to 12 percent remained in the fields in the northern part of the state."
"The good news for managers and for deer hunters with permits remaining for the second season is that most of the decline in harvest was a drop in buck harvest," Shelton added. "This means that our doe harvest was fairly comparable to last year and that there are plenty of both bucks and does still out there for second season hunters."
Approximately 59 percent of the deer taken this past weekend were bucks, compared with 62 percent bucks taken during the first weekend of the firearm season in 2007.
The Illinois firearm deer season concludes Dec. 4-7. The muzzleloader-only deer season is Dec. 12-14. The Late-Winter Antlerless-only firearm deer season and the Special CWD deer season are Jan. 16-18, 2009. The state's 2008-09 archery deer season continues through Jan. 15 (except closed in firearm counties during the second firearm season Dec. 4-7).
The table below provides preliminary county harvest totals for the first segment of the firearm season and comparable figures for the first season in 2007.
County 2007 2008
Adams 2140 1900
Alexander 339 335
Bond 877 632
Boone 133 90
Brown 1135 996
Bureau 1205 1030
Calhoun 1036 889
Carroll 921 740
Cass 665 510
Champaign 272 195
Christian 574 466
Clark 1122 896
Clay 1177 998
Clinton 808 635
Coles 621 550
Crawford 950 831
Cumberland 693 654
DeKalb 213 136
DeWitt 320 303
Douglas 212 156
Edgar 608 555
Edwards 434 354
Effingham 923 795
Fayette 1684 1480
Ford 123 115
Franklin 979 827
Fulton 2003 1878
Gallatin 451 402
Greene 1209 989
Grundy 354 269
Hamilton 1036 901
Hancock 1698 1553
Hardin 907 780
Henderson 586 432
Henry 742 561
Iroquois 548 548
Jackson 1824 1612
Jasper 1049 915
Jefferson 1997 1650
Jersey 790 670
JoDaviess 2055 1518
Johnson 1435 1385
Kane 48 43
Kankakee 191 157
Kendall 67 53
Knox 1244 1048
Lake 25 19
LaSalle 1127 957
Lawrence 497 420
Lee 577 446
Livingston 498 392
Logan 401 298
Macon 252 217
Macoupin 1677 1228
Madison 995 648
Marion 1677 1404
Marshall 696 607
Mason 489 484
Massac 471 369
McDonough 902 759
McHenry 360 216
McLean 541 490
Menard 392 288
Mercer 828 632
Monroe 910 863
Montgomery 1149 861
Morgan 899 674
Moultrie 251 224
Ogle 1035 730
Peoria 1317 1133
Perry 1161 964
Piatt 184 134
Pike 2610 2194
Pope 1473 1301
Pulaski 547 533
Putnam 454 361
Randolph 1890 1770
Richland 745 635
Rock Island 806 610
Saline 734 726
Sangamon 743 598
Schuyler 1346 1166
Scott 508 374
Shelby 1193 1025
St. Clair 868 724
Stark 258 216
Stephenson 837 643
Tazewell 625 527
Union 1551 1323
Vermilion 719 648
Wabash 252 218
Warren 554 481
Washington 1083 864
Wayne 1446 1316
White 808 699
Whiteside 806 542
Will 287 267
Williamson 1391 1176
Winnebago 410 315
Woodford 837 753
Total 85490 71894
Hunters register 133,828 deer on opening weekend of 2008 Wisconsin traditional deer hunting season
In conditions that varied from sub-zero to chilly and overcast on opening morning, hunters participating in the traditional November 9-day gun deer hunt registered a preliminary tally of 133,828 deer over the first two days of the hunt a 22 percent decrease from 2007. Buck harvest statewide was down 25 percent and antlerless harvest declined 20 percent. A preliminary count for the two-day opening weekend in 2007 counted 171,584 deer registered. Department of Natural Resources officials stress that this is a preliminary call-around tally that will change when all registration stubs are submitted by registration stations and entered into the department's registration data base.
Wildlife officials say several factors likely contributed to the lower count including lower deer numbers after several years of herd reduction strategies, very cold hunting conditions on opening morning in northern units, a late opening weekend that missed the peak of the rutting season, poor fawn recruitment this year, and tough winter conditions last year after a string of mild winters.
“Although this is a preliminary count, we may be seeing the result of a tough winter and several seasons designed bring deer numbers down. DNR staff across the state reported that hunters were seeing fewer deer and hearing fewer shots this year,” said DNR deer biologist Keith Warnke. “Hunters’ efforts appear to be having a positive effect on lowering overpopulations of deer in many areas.”
Herd control season structures provide extra days of hunting and target antlerless, or mostly female, deer as a means of reducing high populations.
