Have an opportunity to get in on a lease here.

Looking for some first hand experience from people who have hunted the area.

Ken

I lived and hunted in the adjoining Wayne county and other neighboring counties for 14 years just after coming out of the Army.

Clay is usually one of the top Illinois counties for deer harvest quantity. I have been out of that area for 25 years now but my guess is that trophy deer are running between 125 and 150 inches. The specific quality will depend on the land where the lease is, amount of control of poaching, lease rules for management and the amount of work put into food plots.

That county is in the Northern part of the Southern part of the state so is far enough South that the late shotgun season is great. This gives you more than one chance each year.

I assume you are aware that Illinois is restricted to bow, blackpowder and shotgun only hunting - no centerfire rifle.

You could fly into St.Louis and be there in a couple hours, have the meat and trophy horns shipped to you or drive your pickup.

Whether it would be worth a drive from Va. or not would be hard to say. To me it would not. If I was going to go and stay the season it might be ok but to make two or three trips per year - well I would not do it. Another issue for me is that I like to hunt with my centerfire rifles and you cant do that in Illinois.

I would think you could find closer opportunities unless you want to hunt Clay because of friends or family.

I lived and hunted southern Illinois for 50 years. There's excellant deer hunting throughout the entire area. A good slug gun or muzzleloader will take deer at 200 yards and current slug guns and loads are not a handicap. I've killed several at over 160 yards with my slug gun, they didn't go very far after being hit either. Slugs normally leave better blood trails than rifle bullets if and when needed.