If you can spare the time midweek at any point throughout the season, however, there is good reason to do so. Deer will be in the woods whenever you make the time to join them. A full 39 percent of all late-season archery deer are taken on Saturdays and Sundays, but that also means that slightly less than two-thirds are bagged Monday through Friday.

So when is the best time to hunt late-season? Every chance you get!

Okay, the decision has been made. Just as soon as you finish this article, you'll be going out to fill that tag. From here, you have a lot of options to consider. To help you plan the rest of your approach we gathered the data, crunched the numbers and put together this advice on late-season deer opportunities.

Firearms are a popular choice for late-season but the limited number of tags that are issued prevents us all from taking advantage of this option. We'll discuss that momentarily. In the interim it's important to recognize that bowhunters are still in the game. In fact, archers take a substantial number of deer after the echoes of second season shotgun have faded from memory.

During the 2003-04 season, archers took 6,477 deer from the end of the second shotgun hunt until the final bell rang on Jan. 15. Even higher numbers were attained in 2004-05 when the total climbed to 7,332 whitetails in the freezer for those using bow and arrow.

Micetich talked about bowhunters in late season and outlined a regulation change for this season.

"The late season is available to all bowhunters -- resident and non-resident alike -- with valid archery deer permits," he explained. "All 102 Illinois counties are open to archers. A change for the 2005-06 year will include the availability of over-the-counter Non-Resident Antlerless-Only Archery Deer Permits at $26 each."

It is certain that folks in some circles will respond negatively to this change, but the rationale for doing so is pretty basic. "We can't kill enough antlerless deer," Micetich said. Despite expanded seasons, new hunt areas and fewer restrictions on weapons choice, hunters have failed to kill sufficient numbers of antlerless deer.

The DNR has a responsibility to manage whitetail herds within certain population levels, and non-resident antlerless archery tags offer one more alternative that presents additional opportunities for hunters. There are other alternatives that would be far less palatable, such as the use of sharpshooters. Any time hunters are given the nod in management decisions, wildlife managers should be commended and not condemned.

Of course, a real benefit afforded bowhunters in late winter is the ease of access to otherwise inaccessible lands.

"Hunters willing to shoot does will find themselves to be very welcome in most areas of the state," Micetich explained. "Farmers and other landowners experiencing crop and/or ornamental damage due to deer are more than happy to allow somebody to remove some of the offending animals.

"I know a few archers who get permission in the late winter to shoot does only on several farms," he continued. "Between them, approximately 30 deer are removed annually. Meat is donated to needy citizens whom they know personally and/or the Sportsmen Against Hunger program. Years of demonstrating proficiency with archery equipment have allowed them access during 'prime time' to farms they could not enter just a few years ago."

Bowhunters have made huge contributions to deer management over the years but they simply cannot keep pace with expanding deer numbers. That brings us to the late-winter firearms season.