Illinois wildlife biologists predict another bumper crop of whitetails awaiting bowhunters on Oct. 1. Photo by Windigo Images.

You've been scouting for weeks. The stands are set and the gear is ready. All that's left is the long, grueling wait for the annual archery deer season opener. While you may already have a good idea about where to find whitetails on your personal hunting grounds, many hunters are curious to know how things are shaping up on a statewide basis.

Well, the news is indeed bright. Illinois wildlife biologists predict another bumper crop of whitetails awaiting hunters for the Oct. 1 opening of the archery deer season. And for those familiar with Illinois bowhunting, this not only means good numbers of whitetails but plenty of wallhangers as well.

WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY
No matter what state a hunter may call home, anyone spending any serious time in a tree stand has certainly heard about the quality of Illinois deer. And Illinois Wildlife Program manager Paul Shelton said this year is no exception.

"I think things are in place for Illinois deer hunters to do as good or better than last year," Shelton said. "When it comes to the archery season, I actually think our hunters have underperformed the past few years."

Shelton bases these comments on the less-than-desirable hunting conditions that occurred during last year's nearly 3 1/2-month season and not on a lack of skill among bowhunters.

"A great deal of our hunters' success depends upon weather conditions at strategic times in the season," he explained. "As an example, conditions were far less than favorable during the first month or so of the 2007 season when summer-like weather plagued much of the state."

Most hunters readily admit that temperatures hovering near 90 degrees make deer hunting exceptionally difficult. Last year, cool fall weather didn't arrive until the early weeks of November.

"While permit sales and regulations are in place for a big harvest, it has not yet happened in recent years," Shelton said. "While our Illinois bowhunters have done quite well, the deer harvest in our state has certainly not yet reached its full potential."

The percentage of harvested antlerless and antlered deer has changed little in recent years. In both seasons, firearms and archery combined, the figures show Illinois hunters took about 60 percent antlerless each year, a figure Shelton said holds true for the current archery season.

Interestingly, fewer antlerless deer have been taken during the past firearms seasons. Shelton attributes this to regulation changes that allow firearms hunters to use their unfilled permits during the late winter antlerless-only deer hunt held in January.

"These hunters are now considering the late-winter hunt merely an extension to the regular season," Shelton said. "Instead of taking a doe during the second segment of the hunt, many continue to hunt for bucks realizing they still have the late-winter hunt to fill their antlerless tags."

THE HEALTH OF THE HERD
Every year, there are last-minute concerns for deer hunters and 2007 was no exception. A late summer outbreak of epizootic hemorrhagic disease, an acute, infectious virus that kills white-tailed deer, was detected in several downstate counties. The news concerned deer hunters who worried that whitetail numbers in some isolated areas might be lower.

EHD outbreaks typically begin in late summer or early fall and end with an insect-killing frost. At the time, the disease was the suspected cause of death in wild deer in at least 28 central and southern Illinois counties and was also confirmed in captive deer herds in Franklin and Randolph counties.

Officials believed the dry summer contributed to the outbreak.