Several years ago, I had the opportunity to hunt pen-reared birds at the Green River SWA in northern Illinois, expecting a less than challenging experience. Boy, was I wrong! Our party of four hunters managed to bag five birds, none of which fell to this gun after pre-trip bragging resulted in a self-imposed restriction of taking just four shells.

Hunter success at Green River last year was 1.14 birds harvested per hunter, about average for these state wildlife areas. The highest hunter success was reported at the Jim Edgar Panther Creek SFWA where 3,833 out of 5,525 birds released went home in game bags for a hunter success ratio of 1.46 pheasants per hunter.

Information on the 2008 Controlled Pheasant Hunting Program, including season dates, regulations and the permit procedure is available at www.Irsidnrpermits.com.

In addition to these managed hunting areas, the DNR, in partnership with a private concessionaire, offers pheasant hunting at four other sites across the state. Hunting at the Chain-O-Lakes, Ramsey Lake, Silver Springs and Horseshoe Lake sites costs nearly twice as much as hunting on state-managed properties, but the allowable daily bag is doubled -- four birds of either sex per day.

“In an attempt to offer diverse hunting opportunities to the public, the hunting on our four public/private partnership sites is an attempt to provide the hunting club experience to hunters of average means without having to pay outrageous private hunt club prices," McCloud said.

The concessionaire bears the expense of raising and releasing pheasants at the partnership hunting areas.

“With fuel costs at more than $4 a gallon a day, even a short hop from home to recreation properties can be pretty pricey," he said. “At least one of these sites is less than a three-hour drive from just about anywhere in the state. Share the expense with a couple of buddies and it may be the hunting highlight of your entire year."

Details on the public/private partnership sites are available online at www.tmillerinc.com/.