archer58

I can feel your pain guys. For4 years in a row starting back in 1996, every year the new piece of ground I found to hunt ended up being POSTED. I had begun to hunt large tracts of timber owned by coal companies and logging companies. It seemed for a while this land would always be open. I was wrong. The land was sold every time I was getting comfortable. I ended up in a large member (400)lease of 19,000 acres.

My friends at Ultra Products tell me how hard it is to find land in IL. to hunt. IL's reputation as THE state to bowhunt makes it tough.

Good Luck, and if you ever come to PA. I can find a tree for you.

davidmil

You may have to start hunting. LOL Seriously, public land holds a lot of nice deer for the guy willing to do the work. It's gratifying when you succeed under those conditions.

kshunter

Sorry to hear that Justin. The good thing is that is done now, and not right before October, so it still gives you some time to looks around and find some new land. May have to start pulling for some of those Iowa tags!

huntingson

I just don't think that public land hunting is as bad as everyone makes it out to be. I have had good luck on public lands, and my father killed one of the biggest bucks ever killed in Ohio with a bow on public land (last checked it was still in the top 50). I don't think it is so much that public land sucks to hunt, I think it is more the fact that the average Joe hunting public land sucks at hunting. Obviously won't be the case for you two, so you will do just fine.

Red Lion

I was going to comment that I hope that you at least have some public land to hunt? I do about half my hunting on public land, and enjoy it during archery season, as the competition is very minimal. Good luck to your and your partner.

Justin

We tried the door knocking thing this past weekend and it didn't pan out so well. Either they didn't allow hunting on their land, their family or neighbors hunt the land already, or they didn't own any timber worth hunting. It was an interesting experience and we met some awfully "interesting" individuals, but didn't have much luck. It didn't help much when duke called one lady a "Mister" because he couldn't tell if she was a man ora woman.

And yes, we both killed nice deer last year but unforunately won't or don't have access to those lands anymore. The tree where I killed my nice buck has been turned into a retention pond, the land where duke killed his 23" wide buck will soon be excavated for homes, and the land where duke killed his 130" 8-point was the lease in East Central IL that we gave up. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a terrible piece of property, but just not the place for us. Putting all the time, money, and effort in a piece of land that's never going to be much more productive than one guy getting one chance at a decent buck each fall just doesn't make much sense to us. The land is a 100 piece that we were hunting maybe 20 acres of, because the rest was non-huntable. I'd rather take my chances on public land.

I'm not too concerned about public ground, because there are some good tracts here in IL for us to take advantage of. It's more or less a case of having to adopt our hunting style to be more mobile and constantly changing versus hanging our stands on a piece of private ground and being able to sneak into them in the dark.

Cougar Mag

Yep, things sure do change over the years. I used to have sole access to several hundred acres, but over time due to increasing bowhunters and decreasing land availability I now share most of my areas with a few others. I've never leased and don't plan on it as long as I have land to hunt by permission. Its not getting any easier for sure.

MichaelHunsucker

Oh no!

One thing that i have done, which was mentioned above was asked a lot of people in the city limits about hunting. There are way more rifle hunters then there are bow hunters. Also, its really nice having a place close to town so i can just shoot out there after class and hunt. Usually in the more rural parts of the city deer are extremely overpopulated, i have several city spots that hold great deer!

PABowhntr

I am with David on this one. Enough of that sissy "lease" hunting. Now you have to hunt like the rest of us.



Seriously though, I am sorry to hear of your situation but can sympathize to an extent. I, too, had a prime piece of private property that I hunted many years ago. Development was its downfall and since then I have hunted public land almost entirely. I wish you luck with your search for a new piece of property and, as always, you are more than welcome to hunt with me if you should ever be in my neck of the woods.

Germ

Do not hold back, LOL

PM sent about leasing Justin