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Preliminary numbers are in for 2017 deer hunting harvest

Illinois deer hunters were busy in 2017.

Preliminary numbers released from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources showed that hunters harvested two percent more deer than the year before.

In total, 147,535 deer were harvested over the various weekend hunting seasons last year.

I-D-N-R spokesperson Ed Cross says that the most popular of the season got off to a slow start but rebounded well, “With firearm season… the first weekend weather wasn’t the greatest so we potentially saw fewer hunters out there, but second season the weather was ideal. And we really saw a tremendous turnout as far as harvest numbers.”

Cross also says that now is the time to start planning for the fall seasons, “We’ll go over the numbers. We’ll see county by county how things went and we’ll assess that information and that’ll help us start preparing for the next season.”

In Knox County, hunters nabbed 2,251 deer. 1,145 were shot during the firearms weekends and 900 harvested during the archery season. Compared to last year, Knox County hunters harvested 58 less deer during the deer hunting season.

Neighboring Fulton County proved to be the hottest spot to hunt, they brought in 4,046 head of deer during the 2017 year. 1,997 from the firearm weekends and 1,621 during archery season.

Neighboring Warren County saw 845 deer harvested while Henry County hunters brought in 1,036.

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