The News Outside

I live and work in pike co. The land prices here are average 3000 to 3500 per acre unless you go thru whitetail properties or land guys something like that. And to the guys shooting 10 or 15 deer every year you are cutting your own throats , we dont need thrill killers like you all ruining our herd . That is what happened here . Nobody ever thought we could kill all the deer ,well let me tell ya its been done our herd is ruined because of exactly what you are doing . 10 years from now you will be looking back and saying what have we done and how do we fix it. 2 deer is all anyone needs if that many . Most of these idiot out of staters come here kill deer solely for the antlers and either dump the carcasses on some gravel road . I hate to say it but nothing will be done because us as hunters cant come together and agree on anything. Too many game hogs, too many outfitters , too many special intrest groups involved . Why do we have seasons ? Because people killed off almost all deer back in the day and here we stand again . Like i said nothing will be done .

Mohican . I like your thinking!.

That can only be a good thing in my opinion.

Mattg . I agree and thank you and Andy for prices. I will stay in my corner of Knox county.

For the first time in my 25 years of hunting, I heard a story of someone sitting all seven days of gun season and not SEEING a single deer!!!! This was not in cook county either, it was in a well renown east central hotspot. What a shame.  Now for my two cents worth, I believe the free landowner permit idea has ran its course and should be stopped immediately.  It isn’t the cause of our situation but it has no benefit to deer management.  Of course, if IDNR had any deer management in mind they would see this. Some new faces at IDNR wouldn’t hurt my feelings, but I look at it like this; you can’t tax your way out of debt nor can you expect rulemakers to fix OUR deer herd. So keep educating your fellow hunters. Oh ya, my vote is for 2 deer max all seasons.

Knox I think you have the right idea.  I’d stay put as well.  The farther away from there, the better.  I’m a public land hunter but I’m happy just getting out and seeing a few deer.  Our numbers are significantly down but I do manage to find some deer.  Some days I just like to pick up a little trash and be seen.  Just my way of taking care of that little area and trying to keep the shady guys in check.  I like to think it helps. 
No desire to be anywhere near the highly pressured counties.

Don’t have any ground in the “golden triangle” Knox, but whether you like it or not the prices have been going up significantly over the past 4 years and will continue to do so. I wouldn’t buy anything over there but people still are paying a pretty penny for that ground because the area is famous. People will be gobbling that ground up 5 years from now for 5k an acre

Yellowstone , prices here topped out a couple years ago it was going for 4500 to 5000 an acre.the last couple years prices have dropped considerably. There are many and i mean many people that are having buyers remorse . Leases are being cancelled all over the county but farmers and land owners still want the prime price after being spoiled the last 20 years and wont let anyone hunt without a big fat check . We have no herd left . I just drove 45 miles from pittsfield to quincy and back 45 miles and saw 0 deer . Left here at 9 pm got back at 11:30 . My second trip there today my first trip was at 5 pm when we left and got back around 7:30 0 deer then also . The last shift i worked we drove to northern calhoun county a 35 mile trip and back saw 0 deer also . That night went to barry ,griggsville and back to barry saw 0 deer . All night . Im telling you folks our herd here is gone plain and simple . We used to see 20 to 30 deer every trip to barry now a big goose egg . Its amazing the difference a few mismanaged years can make . We started seeing this decline 4or 5 years ago and it has accelerated two fold every year .

I agree with Andy totally!!!!!! Your buck to doe ratio BS was brought on by (all of your sponsored tv celeb hunters) So they can justify all of their kills——- Oh yeah and to make videos to sale! People get caught up thinking they need to kill all of these deer. And think the deer only take up residency on their property. I guarantee you shooting 15 deer has a definite affect on your neighbors sightings.

I am not sure most hunters in Illinois realize this problem is all over the Midwest. I talked to a hunter friend that lives in Minnesota and it’s same thing there, no deer. There are fewer deer in Kansas and Iowa as well. In those states it has little to do with there being too many hunters. There is only one theory I have heard that makes logical sense as to how this happened. The only truly logical explanation is it has to have something to do with these genetically altered farm crops being planted. There is no other explanation for such a widespread state by state decline. If you notice, the states with the largest herd reductions are the states with large portions of tillable ground. There was a farmer that found 15 dead deer last fall in his corn field during harvest. In the area I hunt in Kansas, there have been about 5 deer taken off of 2000 acres in the last 4 years and there was no EHD here yet the numbers are half what they were. The fact that Illinois is over hunted certainly adds to the problem but the main problem with the lack of deer is something we aren’t talking about. Maybe god just looked down one day and said ” my beautiful deer are turning my human animals into morons. Think ill wipe out half of them to stop this nonsense.” Makes as much sense as any theory I’ve heard.

Yellowstone, every DNR in the Midwest was also starting to reduce populations, just like IL.  When EHD hit, and DNR/DOC’s didn’t react quickly, it was like having 2 harvest seasons in one year in some places. And that’s a big hole to dig out of.  Jason Sumner with MODOC said it best in numerous press releases… basically stating that hunters and DOC’s are slow to react and keep shooting the same amount of deer with a smaller herd.  By the time they see the impact, it’s too late and herds have been cut below targets.  Main difference between IL and other states (like MO, IA, and many others) is that IL still won’t admit there’s any problem with the deer herd.

I’m not buying the GMO conspiracy theory.  GMO’s (hybrids) have been around for decades.  I have a close friend who has a PhD in ruminant nutrition (deer are ruminants), and we’ve talked a lot about this.  In the 2012 drought year, we did have high levels of aflatoxins in some areas of the corn belt (not at all related to whether the crop is GMO), but my friend said that would have no impact on deer.  Aflatoxins concentrate in the fiberous part of the corn kernel, and are more dangerous in feed products like DDG’s.  With a deer’s diet being varied… and 2/3 of a corn kernel not carrying the aflatoxin, there would be no impact.  Besides, I’m not seeing sterile does or large die-offs in my area (other than overharvest due to too many permits being issued).

So many of the hunters these days got in the deer hunting game during the peak.  They dove in because of popularity, the cool celebs doing it, and so many other self righteous reasons.

None of them ever knew what it was like before it was peaked out.  They never grew up hunting during which time a successful hunt was measured by the SIGHTING OF A DEER.  Remember when going multiple sits without seeing a deer was normal?  I SURE DO!!!!  Remember when it was about going out to just kill a deer?  How about when you were a stud because you killed a deer three years in a row with your bow?

I could take or leave a one buck limit.  It might do a little good.  I think it would be minimal.  The good certainly would be counteracted by you guys promoting shooting a young buck instead of a doe. (Completely retarded in my opinion, but that’s for another post)

I could take or leave a 2 deer max per person.  It wouldn’t affect me so much.  But it would affect my elderly neighbors 2 houses down.  It might also affect my brother who doesn’t hunt, but we also give burger to.

I’d campaign actively for a strict cap on NR tags.

And I’d love to see all the guys who jumped in the woods because Jason Aldean, Aaron Lewis, and Blake and Miranda do it…..go back home.  And take your truck stickers with you.

And I hope and pray that some of you are right, that land prices with come back to reality.  That’s the only chance I’ll ever have at owning my own piece of subpar hunting ground.

GOODSOIL hit the nail on the head on several points.  You can’t fix the whole state with one blanket approach.

HAHAHAH take your truck stickers with you!

I agree that there is no one size fits all approach will work for the entire state.  I think we need to find a middle ground in order to get anything done.  While I am not a fan of outfitters and the out of state problems that they are associated with, there are also a lot of farmers that make additional income off of NR hunters.  I think that there needs to be tighter quotas by county and a reasonable harvest limit.  I have seen too many times when NR hunters come here because they do not see big bucks back home, and then come here and shoot a small buck because they spent so much in fees and travel that they feel they have to shoot something to justify the costs.  I also find it crazy that we sell tags over the counter to NR.  The last several years of drought and disease in some areas will also take several years to recover from if the state had made changes to harvest goals.  Since the dnr has done little I’m afraid the impact will be felt for many years to come.

TK1 you’re right.  There are a lot of people who rely on that income from their non resident hunters.  In reality, the NR’s are here to stay, no way they’ll ever do away with that.  If managed properly by our DNR they could reduce the amount of tags and adjust the cost of out of state permits to make up for the difference.  That way those who benefit from the NR’s still can.