Illinois used to have a Handgun Hunting season in mid Jan. However with the continuely increasing size of the deer herd, it's now any almost any firearm for any season (except you have to use a muzzleloader if you have a muzzleloader tag) and now if you have an unfilled tag from either of the two November seasons (1st season is the weekend before T-Day and 2nd season is the weekend after T-day) or the Muzzleloader-only season, you can use it in the Mid Janurary (anterless only season (IIRC, it's 3 days around the weekend closest to the 15th of Jan).
Just to give you some idea, this year the DNR
REDUCED the price of most Non-Resident archery and firearm permits, to help bring more hunters in to reduce the herd. I expect in a few years that the price of resident permits will drop from the already low, low price of $15 per tag to probably $10-$12 per.
I already got my Firearm Either Sex and Anterless Only permits. Come August I'll get my Twoferone Archery permit for $25 (You get an Either Sex and an Anterless Only tag for $5 less then price of buying two seperate tags) Around 15 Sep, I put in for the Random Daily Draw for another Antlerless Only permit or two. So come deer season, I'll have 5 or 6 tags in my pocket.
I have friends and co-workers who like venison and I always try to donate a whole one to "Illinois Hunters Feeding the Hungry" in addition to filling my own freezer. I might have to put three in the freezer this year. We were out of steaks/roasts before June 15th this year, and we've only got 12-15 lbs of ground left. Everything else was gone by Feb. I hate buying meat at the store.
