Public Land - Northern Illinois
Contributors to this thread:Illinois
From: schmitjj1
30-May-17
I have recently moved back to Illinois and am looking to find public land opportunities 1-2 hours away from Chicago for Saturday-Sunday hunts this fall. Can anyone make some recommendations based on experience?
From: Zim1
31-May-17
BTW - Statistically your chance of taking a P&Y buck at JTA or any other Chicago area public is approx. 5% per year. Photos & stats in the hunter shack will confirm this if you care to calculate. If you can get off ten days and go downstate, that percentage will be approx. 40%. Been there done both for 25 years. I've taken about 10 book critters, almost all on public.
From: ryanrc
18-Jun-17
Take a week off and drive to Wisconsin or Indiana. You will be better off. Unless you enjoy having conversations with the other hunters in the woods with you. Don't worry, they will be close enough to you that you can whisper! Not kidding. Usually, they will come in right at first light and rattle and call every 15 minutes. If I had a dollar for every "hunter" that did that to me I could afford a guided hunt. Seriously, head north or way south to national forest land where you can get away from the crowd. Shawnee is decent, but Wisconsin is closer.
Side note, I once saw a lone doe 50 yards out and not coming towards me. I turned the primos can over one time and you would have sworn I shot her with a 12 gauge. She turned inside out and ran! That is how educated those deer are.
Good luck.....
From: Zim1
19-Jun-17
Ya last couple years I had'em shot out of a canon even downstate during the mid-late bow season. The three properties you mention are really rough from the get go.
