Illinois Public Land Hunt

[thwack16]

Good stuff!

He also hunted Mississippi again this year, but it doesn’t sound like he has plans of going back...

Would love to hear about this hunt(s) if they're documented anywhere.

Mississippi is said to have an estimated 1.75 million deer herd, with an 1/8 of them annually harvested by hunters. Roughly 4% of Mississippi is open to public hunting, at least according to a statistic I read somewhere, and that's very little compared to Wisconsin's 14%. So of Mississippi's 30-million acres, less than 1.3 million is available for public hunting spread out across the state. That's very limited, considering Wisconsin's calculation comes from 34-million acres of total land with nearly 5.2-million huntable to the public.

So between the expansive margin of public land availability and total land acres across the state, along with heavy hunting pressure, the challenge of escaping the masses to have some space is real. Nonetheless, like most Beasts, Joe isn't afraid to put in the work to find those hard-to-find and hard-to-access pockets of public, but concedes that the sightings are minimal at best and witnessed minimal practice of buck age class management.

The ratio between deer harvested versus total herd is relatively close between Mississippi and Wisconsin, where roughly 13% of the deer were killed in Mississippi in 2017, versus Wisconsin, where 15% of the deer herd are thought to have been killed by hunters in 2017. Mississippi actually has a fairly small deer herd per their total land mass, versus Wisconsin who is somewhat comparable in total land mass, but has more than a half-million more deer roaming the land. And yet, the harvest to herd ratio is very comparable between the two states. In other words, hunters put a much heavier dent on the Mississippi deer herd than they do on the Wisconsin herd. At least that's how my math works out...

Thanks Sam. I'm well versed on Mississippi. Have lived all my 28 years here.

Seeing that there is no harvest reporting, tagging, etc in MS, the numbers the state puts out is really worthless. We have a 3 month gun season with a 3 buck limit, we're definitely going to kill more deer than a state that has a week or two of gun seasons.

I was just really wondering what area of the state he hunted, weapon, whether he hunted an area with weapon restrictions, dates of his hunt, and how he fared.

[Sam Ubl]

I got ya. So here goes nothing...

He was hunting the Panther Swamp, a very large public chunk of federal land. This was his second year visiting.

There’s a lot of little things, little nuances about Mississippi and rules/stipulations that are annoying and in some ways take away from the traditional experiences of a northerner appreciates when they Bowhunt.

So for starters, he was hunting the panther swamp. It’s huge, and it’s extremely wet. Tracking a deer down there in the places he hunts means following the bubbles in the swamp water, which means you don’t have a lot of time between the I initial impact of the arrow and tracking, otherwise the bubbles dissipate and there’s little to track by.

When scouting, a rule in Mississippi is that You must turn in a pink slip when your vehicle transitions from a gravel road to paved, and when you turn in the slip, you have to grab more than enough to drive away with. It is illegal to be pulled over without a pink slip that should have been turned over at the check station. If you’re busted, you risk losing everything in your vehicle.

You must turn in a pink slip when your vehicle transitions from a gravel road to paved, and when you turn in the slip, you have to grab more than enough to drive away with. It is illegal to be pulled over without a pink slip that should have been turned over at the check station. If you’re busted, you risk losing everything in your vehicle.

Joe scouts heavily with trail cameras. In Mississippi, it is illegal to leave a trail cameras on federal land. This makes Joe’s ideal way of scouting impossible.

Another stipulation of Mississippi, it is mandatory to wear a safety harness. Well most wear them anyways, it’s not a rule in the north, so it’s just another thing you have to be conscious of. Combine that with the blaze orange requirement, whether you’re hunting with a bow or a gun, and the rules become tedious and somewhat annoying. Especially to a northerner who is not used to that…

A direct result of the system you mentioned, where registration isn’t important, and the number of deer harvested is extreme, or at least the law allows you to take many more than most other states, deer quality (age class) suffers.

Other frustrations included things like gators, and having to wade through swamp waters and never knowing if you’re about to trip over one. Plus he’s not a fan of those giant water moccasins and the abundance of red wolves; they even had a panther sighting! Another frustration was the palmettos. The palmettos are dense and extremely loud. If you jump a family of hogs on your walk in it sound like a herd of elephant running through the woods.

Haha, so lots of little things, but enough to take away from the overall enjoyment of the experience. If the deer numbers were higher and the quality was greater, perhaps it would be easier to look past the little nuances.

[thwack16]

I figured he was in PS, or atleast nearby. PS is the most noticeable chunk of public in our state for deer, which is why I won't step foot on it. I do hunt a few that are in the same system/permit as it though.

Interesting comments about the checking in and out system. You come to hunt/scout, stop by a check station, grab a card and fill it out and move on. When you leave, finish filling it out and return it. It can be a hassle I guess, but it also leads to some good data. For instance, I can go in and see how many people deer hunted during a certain time frame and how many were killed. Then after season you get all the harvest data reports, age, weights, spreads, beam lengths, # of points, etc.

Trail cams are illegal on PS and some other federal lands. Legal on state wmas.

Harness and orange is what it is. Can legally remove orange once 12 feet up a tree so it's only really a hassle walking in and out.

Gators, snakes and hogs are part of doing business in the south. Red wolves however?! Coyotes maybe?

Regardless, congrats to your buddy for coming south to give it a try. I think a lot of beasts would enjoy coming down and getting to hunt another rut in December or early January.

[Sam Ubl]

Regarding the wolves, I asked him twice, he says they howled and looked like wolves. We have plenty of coyote in our local area (SE WI), so I tend to take his word. His dad saw the cougar. Said they brought it up to local conservation warden and he seemed to suggest the possibility. Was no bobcat, so they reported.

All in all it’s just not for Joe. Would the adventure be for me? Absolutely! I’d love to visit one day and see what it’s all about!

[Swampbuck]

Regarding the wolves, I asked him twice, he says they howled and looked like wolves. We have plenty of coyote in our local area (SE WI), so I tend to take his word. His dad saw the cougar. Said they brought it up to local conservation warden and he seemed to suggest the possibility. Was no bobcat, so they reported.

All in all it’s just not for Joe. Would the adventure be for me? Absolutely! I’d love to visit one day and see what it’s all about!

Your original post sums up hunting in the south. I wouldn't cancel your trips in the north to come down here unless you are mentally prepared for the "fun"