Harsh weather does not matter to John Quinlan. Rain, 35 m.p.h. wind, snow, none of that will keep him indoors if he has the itch to bow-hunt.
“I’ll hunt pretty much in anything,” Quinlan said.
Just as well. The archery deer-hunting season in Illinois lasts from Oct. 1 to Jan. 15, with a couple of gaps, and that means the dedicated bowhunter must cope with changing seasons. However, the dedicated bowhunter also gets the benefit of many more hunting days than the shotgun hunter.
If Illinois shotgun hunters blink, they miss their opportunity. They had three days of deer hunting in November and four days in December. Bowhunters? They were going before the shotgun hunters and they’re still going. They can pursue deer with bow and arrow for another 11 days.
Before the season ends, Quinlan will spend about 50 days in the field, many of them at the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Wilmington.
“This is one of my truest passions,” said Quinlan, 31, who grew up in Tinley Park but currently lives in St. John, Ind.
Being self-employed as a home remodeler, Quinlan not only appreciates the flexibility of a long deer hunting season, he has the personal flexibility to take advantage of it.
A record 159,550 deer were harvested during last year’s deer hunting season, spilling over into January of 2003. Bowhunters killed 51,660 of that total. This year’s seasons could eclipse that mark.
Kevin Chapman of Blue Mound, president of the Illinois Bowhunters Society, said there is excellent hunting around Springfield even late in the season (one of his favorite areas is Sangamon County).
“Face it, the woods aren’t very crowded at this time of year,” he said.
Chapman said there are 100,000 archery hunters in the state, and he probably rates as one of the most active, typically visiting the woods between 50 and 60 times during deer hunting season.
The popularity of archery deer hunting in Illinois exploded in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Chapman said, though growth has slowed recently, at least partially because the state capped the number of permits available to out-of-state hunters at 12,843.
“What has increased the most in Illinois is the trophy potential,” Chapman said. “I think we would start seeing more out-of-state hunters if it was not capped.”
Chapman, 38, an accountant, said Illinois’ bow deer season is fascinating because of its length–about 100 days, not including breaks. When bowhunters first head into the woods, they are usually in warmish weather and the leaves are still on trees. The craziness of the rutting season follows. After shotgun seasons, when deer are most wary, things calm down as autumn turns to winter. And in the final weeks, hunters might encounter snow and sub-freezing temperatures.
“Your fair-weather hunters are gone,” Chapman said.
Chapman took a 10-point buck this season, but he is still on the prowl for a doe, hoping one will walk within 25 yards.
“I’m still going out,” he said. “I’ll be out there till the end. Most of the deer I see are going to be out of range. For someone with a gun, 50 yards is a chip shot. For a bowhunter, it’s no shot.”
Quinlan has passed up clear shots at bucks all season, he said, perhaps 60 times. He has two goals this season, to bag a high-scoring Pope&Young trophy and to shoot a doe.
“I let the smaller bucks go,” he said. “I’ll try to take one doe for meat. It’s not exclusively for myself. I have friends who don’t hunt. I give it away. I won’t shoot a small-antlered deer.”
It is difficult to exaggerate Quinlan’s enthusiasm for archery deer hunting. His wife labels him an obsessive-compulsive about hunting, he said. And he doesn’t deny it. He practices his archery, shooting at back-yard targets, much of the year. And in 2000, when Quinlan broke his wrist and couldn’t draw a bow, he went out with friends and sat with them in the woods anyway. People asked why he bothered, but when the injury healed sufficiently for his cast size to be reduced before the end of hunting season, Quinlan shot two does.
“Why do it, if you’re not going to have passion?” he said.
The days of the 2003-04 archery deer hunting season are dwindling and Quinlan has unfinished business besides claiming a trophy buck.
“I’ll take a doe before the end of the season,” he said.
Have to fill that freezer.
