Question for anyone that lives in the lower half of Ill.

[Va varminter]

Is it easy gain permission from land owners to hunt? Or is it all leased out to outfitters? Me and of guy at work were talking about some of the best states to live in to hunt and Ill. came up.

[Melvin Eades]

I live about 60 miles north of St. Louis and it's getting harder to find a place to hunt since the outfitting has come to IL. You have to know someone, lease it or own it to hunt deer. We have lost places to hunt due to the outfitters or because local people have lost places due to leasing and keep what they do have for their family and close friends.

Some of the places I use to hunt will let me call coyotes after deer season is over but not until then. I can understand a landowner/farmer that doesn't hunt or in one case does hunt but sees an oppertunity for some extra income on rough ground they can't farm. You can't blame a landowner for that, especially with the economy we are experiencing. There was a neighbor that had 125 acres in CRP and was getting $3000.00 a year from a guy from the St. Louis area just to hunt deer. Add that onto your CRP payment and that's good income per acre.

One neighbor we used to hunt on that has leased his ground out for hunting about five years ago complained about so many deer. When these people pay good money to hunt, they don't want to use up a permit to shoot a doe. On this farm, there were usually 8-10 deer a season taken, but the guy who leased it only takes 1-2 deer a year and they aren't doe.

Two years ago I talked to a guy in the DNR law enforcement dept. in Springfield and he said there was one outfitter in IL. that had taken 51 deer with clients and only two of them were doe. He said they warned him if it happened the next season he would not get an outfitters license.

The outfitting is big in IL. and if you have the money, you can find somewhere to hunt.

[OldTurtle]

Va Varminter, Here in Missouri, we're running into the same problem as far as good hunting land being tied up in hunting leases....I don't know of any outfitters operating locally, but there are probably some working under the 'general lease' arrangement..

Unfortunately, the landowners aren't being knowledgeable enough to specify the type of game and the lessee is claiming "all" hunting rights when it comes down to getting any kind of a waiver for coyotes, bobcats, or fox.....even though the lessee is only interested in the deer and turkey..