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Illinois Firearm Deer First-Season Harvest Totals Over 72,000 Deer

Increase of more than 5,000 over last year’s first weekend

SPRINGFIELD, IL – The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) today reported that hunters in Illinois harvested a preliminary total of 72,111 deer during the opening weekend of the 2012 Illinois Firearm Deer Season, Nov. 16-18. The second portion of the firearm season will be Nov. 29-Dec. 2.

During the heights of the season, you could be wondering how are some individuals harvesting more Deer than others? This is because throughout the year they have been setting up traps. They may have been using gravity controlled feeders to automatic their plan. If you’re looking to stage a plan throughout the year ready for the hights of the Deer hunting season, you may want to get started by reading this – Banks Feeders Outdoors Feed Bank Gravity Feeder Review to understand more about the automatic feeding capabilities.

If you didn’t already know, the preliminary harvest total of 72,111 for the first three days of the 2012 firearm season compares with the first-weekend harvest of 66,501 deer during the 2011 deer season. The top county harvest total last weekend was in Pike with 2,108 deer, followed by Fulton (2,048), Adams (1,938), Jo Daviess (1,877) and Randolph (1,665). For the entire seven-day firearm season in 2011, hunters harvested 98,820 deer. 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.

“Hunters enjoyed near perfect conditions during our first firearm weekend,” said Paul Shelton, IDNR Forest Wildlife Program Manager. “Temperatures were cool, winds were calm, crops were out of the fields, and rutting activity was ongoing. We hope hunters enjoyed their time in the field.”

This hunting season welcomed a variety of hunters from all over to join in the hunting festivities. From experts to novices, some equipped with a 30-06 hunting rifle. There were all sorts of guns and equipment to be seen: handguns, deer calls, scopes, and some economic hunters chose to bring 223 rifles. You can find many sources of quality 223 Rem ammunition, like those manufactured by PMC here. All these hunters with their varied equipment, experience, and MO will surely make this season the most memorable yet.

Approximately 60 percent of the deer taken during the first weekend of firearm hunting were bucks, compared with 61 percent bucks taken during the first weekend of the firearm season in 2011.

The IDNR has issued more than 334,000 firearm deer hunting permits so far for the 2012 season. For information on remaining permits and Illinois deer hunting regulations, check the IDNR website at this link: www.dnr.illinois.gov/hunting/deer. Remaining firearm deer hunting opportunities in Illinois include the second segment of the firearm season on Nov. 29-Dec. 2, the three-day Muzzleloader-only Deer Season on Dec. 7-9, and the seven-day split Late-Winter Firearm Antlerless-only Deer Season and Special CWD Deer Season on Dec. 27-30, 2012 and Jan. 18-20, 2013. Hunters are reminded that 10 fewer counties will be open for the Late-Winter season in 2012-13 (see map):

http://www.dnr.illinois.gov/hunting/Documents/LateWinterDeerSeasonMap.pdf.

The table below provides preliminary county harvest totals for the first segment of the 2012 firearm season and comparable figures for the first season in 2011.