Rustling leaves edged toward my ground blind 13 minutes before shooting time Friday.
That’s a wake-up on opening morning of the first part of Illinois’ firearm deer season, Illinois’ biggest outdoors event.
“Oh, God, a opossum is going to come shambling in,” I thought.
Seconds later a hulking buck, I think the same one I passed on taking a running shot at second season last year, stepped within 10 yards before realizing something wasn’t right, then sprinted across the beanfield.
An hour later, a scolding squirrel and a squawking blue jay made me look sharp at a public site in Will County. A big coyote ambled out of the fencerow where I sat, then trotted across the beanfield.
Nothing like opening day.
Ken from Chicago tweeted on X from Starved Rock, “Heard shots early. One too early. But that’s for the conservation officers to follow up on. First time out in four years. . . . Damn, it’s good to be out.”
The hour before shooting time on opening day of deer season is my favorite hour of the year.
Cory Yarmuth messaged from northeastern Illinois, “Deer were moving this morning but the wind made things difficult. I rushed a shot on a small 6-point but had a clean miss due to branches I didn’t see. . . . I saw a beautiful buck but couldn’t get a shot.”
From northwestern Illinois, Chris Gustafson messaged, “Saw three bucks and one doe this morning but nothing in range. Watched one of the bucks chase the doe for a good 20-25 minutes, so the rut must still be going on. Only heard four shots though, all before 8 [a.m.], nothing since and the deer activity seemed to stop when the wind picked up.”
Later, he added, “Just saw a nice buck cross a beanfield on the neighbor’s property, too.”
The early start to firearm deer season this year should mean more rutting activity than most years.
On Thursday, Gary Bloom messaged a scouting report from Edwards County, “Saw one big buck, eight to 10 points, two forks, one doe and fawns. Today saw lots of deer in morning, several bucks. Tonight saw six different deer, one big buck again. They are chasing around (rut).”
From southern Illinois, Michael Malmquist messaged a scouting report Thursday, “Few deer moving, saw a doe with a spike following her around,so I think rut is [on]!!”
“It’s too warm,” Ken Jahnke texted from Clark County. “Supposed to drop to 29 tonight. A lot of the locals are working today. Deer movement is slow here. Should be more people hunting tomorrow.”
At noon Friday, Dan Skinner, forest wildlife program manager for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, said after informally polling check stations, “Steady, but nobody is overwhelmed. Common sentiment is how nice this weather, they can’t remember an opener this nice.”
Earlier, he emailed a nugget from a 1954 publication, “White-Tailed Deer Populations in Illinois (Biological Notes No. 34),” with a county-by-county map of deer populations from the winter of 1950-51, noting, “The entire statewide population was estimated at approximately 3,075 and deer densities were clearly much lower; the five white-tails spotted that year by conservation officers in LaSalle County worked out to roughly one deer per 145,000 acres.”
Within seven years, Illinois had its first modern deer season.
