Myself and some of my buddies are planning an archery hunt on some public land in Illinois. Does anyone have any suggestions as to which areas to look at?

I have no Idea but would like to :welcome: you to the site,:welcome:

Thanks for the welcome, I am looking forward to seeing what this site has to offer to help me become a better bow hunter.

I am also a fellow public grounder. Some of the best hunting I have access too. One tip is to avoid public parking areas. Try to find someone who will let you park at their place and go in from there. Thats what I do, works out much better. And another tip, walk through as little timber as possible to get to your setup. Good luck and welcome.:welcome:

Thanks for the info. Do you have any suggestions as to which areas to hunt. I have been researching the Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois. It looks really good. I am kinda confused, are all the state parks and lakes in that area part of the national forest? For example, is the Giant City State park part of the National Forest? Or is Rend Lake part of the forest as well.

I am not familiar with So. Illinois, get ahold of your local dnr chapter. They should be able to hook you up with a map of the public hunting areas. The illinois dnr website might have some useful info. I know the ground I hunt is Army Corps of Engineer ground. Try this link.

http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/forests/shawnee/recreation/wilderness/

As for location of deer, get out and do some scouting around food sources and water supplies. Try to locate an area where you think they are bedding, and hunt the travel routes between food/bedding or water/bedding.

Great info. Thanks for all your help!

Just a tip, don't hunt too close to the bedding ground. Your presence will just push the deer from that area.

The Shawnee national forest is made up of many tracts of land throughout southern Illinois. There are places were private land surronds federal land and places were you have to hike in . State parks like Giant City have huntable land on them but it is controled by the state. Giant city park is located partially in Jackson county and there is a public lands fact sheet available from the University of Illinois Extension website coming from Jackson county. Good Luck. You find this by going to the U of I website and then click on the Jackson county site and you can print a copy off.

You should check out Crab Orchard Lake and surronding areas, they are Federal land and have many hunting areas.

all the public ground where i live is virtually unhuntable ... its all river bottoms and is so thick u cant walk through it til late december

You should check out Crab Orchard Lake and surronding areas, they are Federal land and have many hunting areas.
Crab Orchard Lake is part of the national refuge system and is in Williamson and Jackson counties in Illinois

The Shawnee national forest is made up of many tracts of land throughout southern Illinois. There are places were private land surronds federal land and places were you have to hike in . State parks like Giant City have huntable land on them but it is controled by the state. Giant city park is located partially in Jackson county and there is a public lands fact sheet available from the University of Illinois Extension website coming from Jackson county. Good Luck. You find this by going to the U of I website and then click on the Jackson county site and you can print a copy off.

WWW.extension.uiuc.edu/jackson

The public lands fact sheet is on the front page along with some food plot information. Hope this helps

try jim edgar state park in central illinois it ha about 7000 acers of land