Surprised no talk has been made on here yet. House Bill 3344 would require the state's various opening deer hunting seasons to be expanded to four days. https://www.countryherald.com/commu...ce-bill-to-extend-states-firearm-deer-season/
Interesting. Don't see it as being a bad thing. Never understood why the IL gun season opens so late and is so short. Other than the IL legislature hates guns. Just make it the 2nd Saturday through the following Sunday (8 consecutive days) of every November and be done with it. Throw in a late MZ season. The stupid short split seasons really puts a kink in developing a "deer camp" tradition. A lot of people north of I-80 are forced to drive hundreds of miles to get to an area they can gun hunt. That's a lot of time back and forth on the road with the split seasons. Plus with gas at $4.00/gal, that's a tough pill to swallow.
I'm indifferent on it, my pnly question is who is pushing this? My guess is the auto insurance lobbyists. They've already cut permits in a lof of locations that if you're not in by 2nd lottery you're chancing not getting drawn at all, regardless of it being public/private. 2 years ago I barely got an OTC tag, never been an issue before even waiting until 2nd season, last year they were gone before ever getting to OTC sales. They just put requirements on some central counties to where it is buck only for the first 2 weeks of archery. Fewer and fewer counties are open for the late firearm season each year. The above were all implemented to help replenish the population numbers, is adding a day going to help with that at this point in time? They stated an additional day would help with CWD, but CWD isn't a statewide problem. I would imagine they would not increase permit numbers, just hope that more deer are killed with the permits already alotted. Something doesn't make sense with it for where we are with herd numbers.
It doesn't make sense. Then again I haven't seen many things they do that does. Allowing tracking dogs might be about the only thing. Don't think there is anything wrong with it. In my experienceafter 3 days the deer are pretty hunkered down so I doubt it moves the needle much. Sent from my SM-G981V using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app