Archery Whitetails in Farm Country

[CREillY]

I am in Illinois (Hour west of Chicago) for work the next 4 weeks and will be back in the fall again for an extended stay. I have been driving around looking for deer along brush/wood lines at dusk in been fields and haven't had much luck. I was going to do some door knocking once I spotted some deer. Any advice would be appreciated!

TIA,
Cody

 

[Boxerboxer]

A few pages in there's a map that shows all the public in IL. Pick one that looks promising (next to some ag if that's what you want), and get some boots on the ground.
https://www.dnr.illinois.gov/hunting/Documents/IllinoisPublicHuntingAreasReport.2015.2016.pdf

 

[jorgensen.travis]

There are a lot of deer in Illinois, but it’s not a good state to hunt in. A lot of the land is owned by corporations and leased out to farmers. Usually the person living in the farm house doesn’t own the land (at least south of Chicago where I live). You can kill deer on public land, but make sure you read all the site specific rules. For instance, some areas require orange for bow hunting at certain times, and have hours when the forest is “open” or “closed”. Believe it or not, most of the public land within an hour of Chicago doesn’t allow hunting. IDNR has a decent website showing public land that you can hunt on. Most of the land isn’t as crowded as you might think, because hunting isn’t very popular around here.
Good luck


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[Stilpr]

Check out Dan Infalt at Huntingbeast.com

He just released a video on hunting Farm Country Deer and it focuses on identifying deer bedding areas, stand set ups, transition areas, etc. I have his video on hunting swamp deer, and if its half as good as that video its well worth the money. There are reviews posted already for it, but mine is on order and I will update after I get it and find the time to watch it.

good luck!

 

[Jmock97]

Just got done watching Dan's farm bedding dvd great information well worth the cost.

 

[WhiteOak]

Now my experience is with hunting whitetails over Beanfields in NJ but I imagine this may apply as well. Most farm country back home is situated around wooded areas as well mostly old mature oaks. When hunting the field or the edges there would be almost no activity until the last 10 minutes of light every day*with one exception I'll mention below.

There were just so many damn acorns in the forest the the deer really don't even need to come out to the farm fields. Beans are a luxury that they will wait for until they know it is safe. I've seen them stage for an over and hr before moving from the woodline after it was dusk. I have found more opportunity and sighting whens setting up within the woods on trails perpendicular to the woodline where they will gather together before heading out.

*The exception to deer being in the field was if it was raining especially significantly. My buddy and I both witnessed the pattern and started to look out for rainy days. I mean we could walk right down the woodline until we were even with them and at least get one good stalk on them in the field. Whenever it was raining I would rush home to get out there just knowing there were deer in the field