5th Round of Archery Season Harvest Shows Buck Increase

The preliminary numbers for the archery harvest totals are out and they are still above from last year, the difference of 682.  The rut is right around the corner, or in some of the circles I've been talking to their seeing bucks chase.  I can believe it, 61% of the harvest in the last 7 days were bucks.   Over all, more does have been harvested but, I think you'll see those numbers change here in the coming weeks.  Also, the orange army is coming.  Below you'll the report from the IDNR along with the county by county numbers. 

Here you can see two proud Illinois hunters.  Congrats to Gavin and Chase for their harvest! 

Last week Friday the IDNR released that EHD claimed over 400 deer.  Read  Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD) Claims Over 400 Illinois deer in 2018 to find out more.  

Archery Deer Season  

Through Sunday, November 4, 2018, Illinois archery deer hunters harvested a preliminary total of 26,530 deer, compared to 25,848 for the same period in 2017. Harvest for the past week was 8,048, peaking on Saturday with 2,665 deer, and slowing with the widespread rain and wind on Sunday. 

Harvest to date has consisted of 55% does and 45% males (14667:11863), but males comprised 61% of the harvest during the past seven days.
Sixty percent of the harvest has been taken using compound bows; 39% by crossbows; and 1% by traditional bows (longbows and recurves).

The top five counties for archery season harvest through November 4 were Pike (890), Fulton (701), Adams (649), JoDaviess (591), and Jefferson (564).

COUNTY by COUNTY