I just moved to Columbia a few weeks ago from Louisiana and going from hunting 160 acres of family land to public land here. Kind of upset about that but I didn't get to hunt last year so I'll take what I can get! It's a little late to scout too hard IMO but I'd like to get some work in before the season starts. I'm particularly interested in Peabody River King SFWA, Horseshoe Lake, and Fort Kaskaskia. Does anybody have any experience in these? Any advice would be appreciated! Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk
Welcome to the state. All I can say is the deer hunting in IL is completely different then LA. No dogs allowed being one thing. Our public land is/can be crowded. It not too late to start scouting public land. My guess is the parking lots are full of scouters up till opening day. I've never bow hunted any of the IL public land but every once and awhile someone shoots a monster at Horseshoe Lake. My advice for hunting public, especially 1st week of NOV is stay in your stand all day. a lot of hunters won't do this they will leave around 10 AM. after they leave the big boys will start moving around. this is why you should stay in your stand all day. Saddly, the bad thing about public land in IL, is that you're not allowed to enter until a certain time in the AM. with that being said, other hunters will most likely be waiting at midnight to be first in line. (I'm guilty) if you wait until the last minute you may end up walking behind everyone. But in the end it won't matter, because some A-hole will set up 30 yards up wind of you and ruin your day. God I hate public land. If you have time off during the week that's when I would go out. less crowd and some of those hunters may leave after sun rise to make it to work.
Welcome to Illinois and to the forum. Hunting public lands in Illinois can be productive if you work hard and put your time in. I would start scouting topo maps of all the areas and find where all the access points are. I've never hunted any of those areas you mentioned though. Like selfbros said, sit it out all day, and use the other hunters to your advantage. You will inevitably likely run into other hunters, just accept it. Leave the calls and scents at home, the old bucks have already seen them. The majority of people I have found who hunt public lands are not from the immediate area, so weekday hunts can sometimes be the ticket. The weekend before gun season can get pretty crazy, as people will be out scouting and bumping deer around. Sent from my LGLS991 using Tapatalk
Oh and never, I mean never leave your stand in the woods. regardless of how secure it is. There are A-holes that go out in the middle of the night with bolt cutters and flashlights looking for stands people leave behind. Easy to sell on Craigslist. A really good food for thought is find a park worker and nicely asked them for advice. they know 1st hand the land, the wildlife, good and bad people, and where you might avoid trouble and have success. I read an article about this some years back. IL and MO are/were among the highest in public land personal items theft. MO public land hunters are probably the among the craziest psychopaths in the world. They honestly believe they own the government land and you're trespassing. I've had people shoot at deer 30 yard in front of me while I was in the tree wearing blazing F'ing orange. I'll never do public land in MO again. IL isn't as bad like I said you can hunt with relative peace and ease during the week.
Thanks for the help. Yeah I'd never leave anything out there especially a stand. I just bought a climber last week for that reason. Horseshoe lake sounds like it's going to be my first spot to try. Since it's relatively close to home and has pretty good harvest numbers compared to others. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk
SIUE in Edwardsville has a yearly drawling for bow hunting. The campus is over populated with deer. I've heard there are several farmers south of Columbia (redbud area) that lease hunting land. Look in the paper you might find a gold mind
I used to work on campus. Place is overloaded with deer...would see several around my truck when coming off midnights. When did they start a draw? Never head of that... Sent from my LGLS991 using Tapatalk
I'm not sure when they started but my buddy and his dad won two years back. They both shot does. My son played soccer in the Happy feet program set up in back of campus by the soft ball fields. We would see deer all the time.
Sorry to hear that you just moved to Illinois. I spent 2015 in Peoria and was absolutely miserable when it came to hunting.
So I went to one of the public areas this weekend and didn't gain any head way. As soon as I walked through the check in point I crossed a creek and was at the edge of a 200-300 acre soybean field. I don't really know the etiquette pertaining to crops so I didn't want to walk through the beans much. I walked the edges where the creek meets the bean field a little bit but ran out of land after about 200yds and don't have any waders so getting in the water didn't happen. Saw a decent amount kf tracks but no definate trails.. probably just from grazing. Is it OK to walk through the crops? If so then I'll go back next weekend to walk the wood lines and find their access points to the field. I plan on calling the site superintendent tomorrow to find out for sure and a time frame on when they'll most likely be cut but what are yalls opinoins? Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk
I'm from Louisiana and lived in Edwardsville Illinois for 7 years! I have some pretty decent public land hints for ya if you want to PM me that aren't to far from you and you'd never think of hunting there! I killed a few does and a couple decent bucks off some property not to to far from st. louis MO on your side of the river!
Its for a small piece of land that isn't next to the school buildings I believe its only 90 acres and they only pic a couple hunters a year to hunt it on certain weekends....
