Something tells me that you personally stand to profit monetarily if Illinois increases the amount of non-resident archery tags they make available.



You make it sound so good that this young person was able to have this experience. However, the story mentions that these two guys were able to hunt on a friend of their's property. With outfitters, travel agents, etc., profiting from hunts, as time goes on only well-off people are able to hunt in Illinois. Had they been required to purchase this hunt chances are that the cost would have been prohibitive.



I guess it only makes sense that some people are able to profit from the hunting here, but the downside of that is that more and more, local people - youths included - are being denied this experiece because the almightly dollar has taken over.



If your purpose is to advertise for business reasons, please don't disguise it as enthusiasm for hunting.



If I have misread your motives, then please accept my deepest apology.

Max503,

My husband has not been shotgun hunting in years due to the loss of hunting spots. Here he is an Illinois resident with no place to hunt. In 1996 my husband and friends came across an ad in the Outdoor Notebook, $450 for the shotgun deer weekend in Hancock County at a place called "The Break". They went down there to check it out and booked the hunt. Everyone had a great time, food was great, lodging, hunting area. (The women were not invited). They all went back in 1997 and that is when they got the bad news on the last day of the first shotgun season. As they were leaving they told the owner that they would all be back next year. The owner then dropped the bombshell that the cost would be a lot more as he was "guaranteed" he could fill the camp with hunters from New York and Pennsylvania.Needless to say no one ever went back.

Illinois is a terrible state to be a hunter, unless you have the connections. I know where you are coming from and I hope you find a place for next year.Best of luck in your hunting.

Max503,



You have misread my motives. I thought bowhunters on this site would enjoy the newspaper articles. No I do not book hunters for Illinois.I do not book hunters anywhere. I specialize in Africa and Asia airfare, that is all I do. I am not a booking agent.I do not sell hunts. ALL I SELL IS AIRFARE.



I have no place to hunt myself in Illinois as my husband and I have lost all of our areas to hunt to either development or outsiders. We went to the White Oak Plantation in Alabama because we cannot hunt in our own state.



I will not post the Illinois firearm statistics of this weekend or any other Illinois deer stories, so you do not confuse my motives.

Kathi,
My apologies.
This year was the first time in 26 years that I did not have a place to go shotgun deer hunting. Kind of pisses a person off. Deer hunting has been a tradition around here. More and more you see out-of-state plates on big new pick-up trucks towing 4 wheeler trailers parked at your old hunting places. The paper said public land use is up 23% this year. We are being forced out.
I know that's the way things are, but I can't get myself to be happy about it.