Hunters in Illinois harvest preliminary total of 79,429 deer during seven-day firearm season

SPRINGFIELD – Hunters harvested a preliminary total of 79,429 deer during the seven-day Illinois Firearm Deer Season that closed on Sunday, Dec. 4. That figure compares to the final total of 86,847 deer harvested during the seven days of the firearm season in 2015.

The preliminary harvest for the second segment of the firearm season on Dec. 1-4 totaled 24,977, compared with 28,977 during the second season in 2015.  The preliminary harvest total for the first segment of firearm season on Nov. 18-20 was 54,452 deer, compared with the 57,870 deer taken by hunters during the first season in 2015.

Deer hunting opportunities remain available in Illinois this late fall/early winter:

• The Illinois Muzzleloader-only Season is this weekend, Dec. 9-11.
• The Late-Winter Antlerless-Only Season and CWD Deer Season first segments (in designated counties only) will be Dec. 29, 2016 through Jan. 1, 2017.
• The second segments of the Late-Winter Antlerless-Only and CWD Deer Seasons (in designated counties only) will be Jan. 13-15, 2017.
• Archery Deer Season continues through Jan. 15, 2017.

Details on the Late-Winter and CWD seasons are available on the IDNR website.

For more deer hunting information, visit: https://www.dnr.illinois.gov/hunting/Pages/DeerHunting.aspx

A table of preliminary Firearm Deer Season harvest numbers for 2016, broken down by county and compared with 2015, is below.

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