Being an agricultural state, Illinois has 95 percent of its land in private ownership. Most is used for either urban development or farming. The latter lands provide excellent food sources to grow big deer.

Most of the popular deer-hunting counties can be found along major rivers in the wooded bottomlands that are adjacent to grain farms. A quick view of a map with the top harvest counties shows that those counties seem to be shifting southward. In 2006, the best counties seemed to be in the upper middle of the state. The 2007 harvest finds that the best areas are in the lower middle of the state. The following is a quick analysis of the record-book entries by zone from the 2007 hunting season.

ZONE 1
Located along the western border of Illinois in the upper northwest section, Zone 1 is best described as rolling hills, wooded valleys, and high bluffs along the Mississippi River.

In 2007, it produced 24 trophy entries. The top counties were Henry (6) Mercer (5) and Knox (4). Other entries came from Warren (3), Whiteside (2), Carroll (1), Rock Island (1) and Henderson (1).

ZONE 2
Just to the east of Zone 1 and some three hours from Chicago is Zone 2. This one extends from the Wisconsin border down the center of the state to near the Peoria area. The habitat here includes the southern edge of the natural range of white pine trees, a good cover for deer.

Thirty-two trophy bucks from this region were entered in the record book during 2007. Peoria County leads the list with eight entries. Tazewell and Bureau counties both had four entries. Marshall had three. Woodford, Putnam, Boone and Stephenson counties all had two each. Ogle, Lee and Stark counties each provided a single entry.

ZONE 3
As might be expected, entries from this zone were the lowest of all zones in the state with a total of nine. Zone 3 includes the city of Chicago and the collar counties around it. Most of these have limited, if any, hunting. This is not to say that there are not big deer residing in the forest preserves and parks of the zone. As the deer population in this area continues to expand, there is increasing pressure for an urban hunting season. Perhaps at some future time some real trophy bucks may come out of this zone.

The top county was Will with four trophy deer, along with McHenry, Kendall, Kankakee, Livingston and Ford producing one trophy buck each.

ZONE 4
With 42 entries, this west-central area is the second most successful trophy area in the latest survey. The area's top three counties can be found along the Illinois River watershed.

Mason County leads the field with eight entries followed by Schuyler with seven. Fulton County came in third place with five. Macoupin follows these counties with four entries, and then McDonough, Morgan and Calhoun with three, Pike with two, and Cass, Hancock, Scott, Greene, Jersey and Madison with one each.

This area of the state, with numerous river bottoms, wooded hills and agricultural fields, is known for producing big deer. However, much of this land is in private hands either to lessees or landowner outfitters. Hunting by non-Illinois residents is high in the area and it may be that many bucks taken are not entered in Illinois records. There is no way to be sure this is the case.

ZONE 5
Trophy hunters in this area were the most successful in taking record-book deer during 2007. A total of 52 entries were recorded.