Bow hunters Illinois harvest record
January 19th, 2006 by Administrator
Bow hunters in Illinois may have set a record this deer hunting season.
According to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, bow hunters harvested a preliminary statewide total of 64,474 deer during the 2005-06 archery deer season in the state.
That’s nearly 850 more deer than was harvested last year, when a record 63,639 were killed.
“We are very pleased with the harvest total and congratulate the hunters in Illinois who helped make this another successful archery season,” Natural Resources acting director Sam Flood said in a press release. “Deer hunters enjoy the great opportunity they have for bow hunting in Illinois, and we appreciate their support for our deer management program.”
The 2005-06 Illinois archery deer season began on Oct. 1 and concluded on Jan. 12.
With implementation of a new direct telephone and web-based deer harvest reporting system, some duplicate harvest reports may be included in the preliminary harvest total for the 2005-06 season.
“We won’t be sure whether this season’s harvest total is a new record for the Illinois archery deer hunting season until we have time to analyze the harvest data, but we’ll probably be close to last year’s record,” said Paul Shelton, manager of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Forest Wildlife Program.