Illinois hunters harvested nearly 8% more deer during the firearm deer season than during firearm season last year.
Relatively good hunting weather likely helped, but I also wonder if the rise of rifle use may have helped with the spike.
Here is the word from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources:
SPRINGFIELD – Hunters in Illinois took a preliminary total of 82,496 deer during the seven-day 2024 Illinois firearm deer season that concluded Dec. 8. Comparatively, hunters harvested 76,494 deer during the 2023 firearm season.
The preliminary harvest for the second segment of the 2024 firearm season Dec. 5-8 was 27,835 compared with 22,883 deer harvested during the second part of the 2023 season.
The preliminary harvest for the first segment of this year’s firearm season Nov. 22-24 was 54,661 deer.
The county-by-county breakdown is below.
ADAMS 1414 877 2291 2141 BOND 594 274 868 763 BROWN 629 359 988 870 CALHOUN 499 305 804 752 CASS 434 264 698 637 CHRISTIAN 412 207 619 582 CLAY 1118 434 1552 1356 COLES 523 207 730 589 CUMBERLAND 575 281 856 733 DEWITT 261 160 421 350 EDGAR 407 186 593 574 EFFINGHAM 763 365 1128 947 FORD 86 41 127 119 FULTON 1317 673 1990 1834 GREENE 660 438 1098 1014 HAMILTON 838 376 1214 1073 HARDIN 366 188 554 624 HENRY 300 159 459 464 JACKSON 1355 677 2032 2010 JEFFERSON 1406 677 2083 1912 JODAVIESS 936 442 1378 1368 KANE 24 14 38 33 KENDALL 34 36 70 65 LAKE 7 3 10 4 LAWRENCE 476 251 727 618 LIVINGSTON 323 116 439 392 MACON 156 87 243 210 MADISON 549 199 748 655 MARSHALL 462 195 657 599 MASSAC 235 156 391 386 MCHENRY 152 85 237 256 MENARD 260 156 416 380 MONROE 798 321 1119 1100 MORGAN 435 271 706 667 OGLE 418 275 693 662 PERRY 918 492 1410 1326 PIKE 1136 813 1949 1817 PULASKI 206 106 312 296 RANDOLPH 1565 734 2299 2183 ROCK ISLAND 480 228 708 713 SANGAMON 358 186 544 493 SCOTT 216 136 352 378 ST. CLAIR 595 207 802 740 STEPHENSON 307 174 481 535 UNION 798 408 1206 1184 WABASH 156 82 238 178 WASHINGTON 802 363 1165 1041 WHITE 532 306 838 832 WILL 150 76 226 231 WINNEBAGO 174 117 291 279
