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 “Our firearm deer weekends are Illinois’ most popular hunting
season, and amid all the excitement of the season, we want to
remind hunters that safe hunting is the best hunting,” said
Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) Director Wayne
Rosenthal. “Illinois’ hunting safety record is a good one, but
even one hunting incident involving injuries or fatalities is
one too many.”
The IDNR Office of Law Enforcement, which administers the
Illinois Hunter Safety Education Program, reports there were 19
hunting incidents last year during all seasons, three of which
involved fatalities. Ten of those incidents involved hunters
falling from elevated tree stands or falling while climbing into
or out of tree stands.
IDNR safety educators remind hunters using tree stands to use a
Fall Arrest System (FAS) safety harness. Nationally, more than
80 percent of reported tree stand incidents involve hunters who
were not using a fall restraint system. As additional
precautions, hunters should check the harness, straps, ladder
and other equipment to make sure they are in good working order.
Hunters should also be aware of weather conditions that could
make stands and steps slippery, and to have a mobile phone
within reach to call for help, if needed.
Hunters can review tree stand safety online at
http://www.huntercourse.com/ treestandsafety/
Safety educators and IDNR Conservation Police also remind
everyone hunting with a firearm to:
• Treat every firearm as if it is loaded, and never assume a
firearm is unloaded;
• Always point a firearm in a safe direction;
• Be sure of the target, and make sure there are no other
hunters, homes, buildings, vehicles or other animals beyond the
target;
• Keep their finger out of the trigger guard and off the trigger
until they are ready to shoot.
Legal hunting hours for the firearm deer season are one-half
hour before sunrise to one-half hour after sunset.
Hunters who take a deer during the firearm season in most
Illinois counties must register the deer they harvest online, or
through the toll-free phone check-in system.
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To register their harvest by phone, hunters can call
1-866-IL-CHECK (1-866-452-4325). A link to the online deer
registration system is available here:
https://www.dnr.illinois.gov/hunting/Pages/ HarvestReporting .aspx
Hunters registering deer through the online or phone
systems must do so by 10:00 p.m. on the day they take the deer.
In many northern Illinois counties where chronic
wasting disease (CWD) has been detected in deer, hunters are
required to register all deer harvested during firearm season by
taking them to a check station between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and
8:00 p.m. Biologists will be present to take CWD samples for testing
at the time of registration. Testing is voluntary, but all hunters
with adult deer are encouraged to participate. Information on the
counties where hunters are required to check in their deer at check
stations is available on the IDNR website at:
https://www.dnr. illinois.gov/hunting/Documents/2018%
20CWD%20Counties%20Deer%20
Hunting%20Information%20Sheet.pdf
Hunters participating in CWD sampling can check the status of their
deer (listed by phone number) through the IDNR website. Hunters who
provide samples from deer that test positive will be notified by the
IDNR. For more information on CWD in Illinois, check the website at:
www.dnr.illinois.gov/ programs/CWD.
In addition to the seven-day Illinois Firearm Deer Season on Nov.
16-18 and Nov. 29-Dec. 2, other deer hunting seasons in the state
include the three-day Muzzleloader-only Deer Season on Dec. 7-9, and
the seven-day Late-Winter Firearm Antlerless-only Deer Season and
Special CWD Deer Season (in select counties) on Dec. 27-30, 2018 and
Jan. 18-20, 2019. The Illinois Archery Deer Season, which opened on
Oct. 1, is open through Jan. 20, 2019 (except closed in counties
open to Firearm Deer Season on Nov. 16-18 and Nov. 29-Dec. 2).
For more information on Illinois deer hunting regulations, check the
Illinois Digest of Hunting and Trapping Regulations 2018-2019 at
https:// www.dnr.illinois.gov/hunting/ documents/HuntTrapDigest.pdf
[Illinois Department of Natural
Resources]
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