As I type this today, it’s the last day of the Illinois 2024/25 deer hunting season, and the temperature w/wind chill is a dangerous -16F/-27C. I’m not that dedicated that I’ll brave those sorts of temperatures, so yesterday was my last day hunting for the season.
Here’s what I’m writing about: Three lessons learned, a tip to save you some money, and a general overview.
It has been an exhilarating, frustrating season! I harvested my biggest buck ever, a 2 1/2 year old ten-point buck on the very first day I hunted. I saw a lot more deer this year than I ever have in a season, I hunted more this year than I ever have in a season (25 trips, some full day, some half day), I did muzzle-loading hunting and I finally started using a hanging tree stand.
The frustrating part was that ten-pointer was the only deer I harvested. It wasn’t for lack of trying! I must’ve used every luck-chip for the season with that buck, because bad luck dogged me. A broken scope mount kept me from harvesting does at Crab Orchard. I slept in a bit, one morning during first firearm season, thinking that the deer wouldn’t move until later that day, and the trail cam showed me a herd moving past where I would’ve been sitting. I got lost in fog and ended up facing the wrong way for most of the day. I had a buck bed down behind me at 20 or so yards, but I had a doe tag for the area. I had deer moving juuuuust out of range or behind too much scrub for a comfortable shot.
None of these are unusual for hunters, but for all of them to hit me in the same season? Sheesh!
I don’t regret it one bit, though, because I had some pretty neat experiences. I had a couple of encounters with wild turkeys this year. I came face to face with a coyote at 10 yards. I had another coyote wander around my area without knowing I was in the tree stand. I saw bald eagles and other neat birds of prey. I watched a buck work scrapes like crazy (he was out of range of my crossbow). I saw some truly beautiful outdoor vistas. I had a conversation with (or at least I annoyed) an owl. I heard packs of coyotes howling in the night and early morning. I watched the landscape change from summer, to fall and into winter – both with my own eyes and through the lenses of my trail cameras. I got to really experience how deer behavior changes through rut and pressure.
I like thinking back on things and seeing what I learned from the experiences. There was so much I did and tried – with using a ground blind, with the hanging tree stand, using a muzzle-loader for the first time, using trail cameras in a methodical way.
So this post is three lessons that I’m calling out to myself, so I can come back next year and try to recall what the heck to remember! Plus, a freebie tip if you want to save a buck on gear.
1. Learning the land and how the deer move through it
Back when I lived near Chicago, I had a favorite site to hunt. It took me a number of hunts before I was able to figure out how the deer were using the area and where to set up to have more encounters and chances. So when I moved to my new home, near a number of public land spots, I knew I was going to have to relearn all that. I spent some time last winter and early spring doing some scouting – finding where the trails were (especially in the snow), finding bedding area (or at least where I thought bedding was).
In July, I returned to two areas I wanted to hunt, based on the pre-season scouting. Big, rude initial lesson – the summer brush and vegetation made it very difficult to find the trails again! If it hadn’t been for me using the OnX hunting app, I’m not sure I would have found them.
So I set up cameras and initially, had mixed results. One area seemed promising, but the other was clearly not quite what I had thought. Then, as the season progressed, into pre-rut, rut, hunting pressured, and then settling back into more normal winter movements, I found that the areas that I had scouted in winter weren’t really as good as I had thought. One area ended up being far more hunted than I had realized, and the second area wasn’t quite the deer highway that the winter scouting had led me to believe.
For late season, I picked a third area, but this time, I was more methodical about how I set up the cameras. I had three cameras on two promising areas, and a camera kinda in between where I thought movement would happen. This was good, as I learned how the deer moved, I found a family/herd that was using the area and I got a sense of when they would show up. And while I ultimately didn’t harvest a deer from the late season, I did validate that my approach was sound – the deer were where I expected them to be from tracking them on the cameras.
One of the problems of all this is I’m monitoring transit points. The places I hunt have a lot of different options for bedding and winter mast. There are some fields nearby on private farmland, but I wasn’t monitoring them at the time crops were available. So the deer have moved back into the woods for safety, making it harder to know where they’ll be. They might use a transit point for a few days, and then move elsewhere. Firearm seasons here in Illinois are three to four days at a time, so it is definitely a gamble in public land! The methodical use of cameras, as versus just one at an area, help me to figure out where the odds are best.
How do I apply this in 2025/26?
Rather than single cameras, I’ll use three or four in a single area to pin down movements, (hopefully) bedding and general activity, plus any human pressure. This combined with #3 will be a big help.
2. Find the does
Same as one of my lessons learned from 2023/24, but for sure reinforced. Find the does, and I’ll find the bucks, especially during the rut. Most of my rut season was spent chasing where I thought does might be, and coming up short. (Due to #1 and #3!) I did see a couple of nice bucks during rut, but mostly came up empty. Rut is hard, with the horny bucks disrupting the patterns and behaviors of does, chasing them all over the place! But knowing where the does are gives me a chance to find bucks as they come to doe bedding or feeding areas.
3. Focus on one or two areas
When I lived near Chicago, I had my favorite rural public site, plus Crab Orchard, which is a family tradition and well-known to them on where to do. It took me several firearm seasons and scouting sessions to really get a feel for how the deer move, and that was without using trail cameras.
This year, I hunted *four* new areas, which in retrospect was not the smartest thing. It was fun, but not until I focused the cameras on my late season site did I get a sense that I had a decent idea of where the deer were and weren’t. Multiple sites made it hard to learn the movements and find the does. Most public land around here isn’t easy to hunt as it’s mostly wooded and bordering ag(riculture) fields, which presents some challenges. Had I focused on one or maybe two, and put up cameras accordingly, I might have had a better idea of what’s going on.
How do I apply this in 2025/26?
Decide now where I want to focus my efforts next year. Set up cameras accordingly based on late season scouting and what I saw in 2024/25.
If I have two areas, then if I harvest a deer in one, I can switch to the other, or I can focus on one for archery and the other for firearm seasons.
Here’s my best freebie tip to save some dough –
Stalk the Walmart sporting department right around Christmas (a few days before and then after) for when they throw their hunting clothes on clearance. I know, I know, Walmart… but the deals on camo shirts, hoodies, pants are worth it. It might not be top of the line, Sitka-camo stuff, but for the basics and the dollar, it’s great! I got a pair of pants that I absolutely love and will get a second pair next year on clearance. The nice, synthetic long sleeve camo tops are my go-to as a layer. So far, the clothes last about as long as stuff I’ve bought from Bass Pro, and definitely less expensive.