Good Ole Days

[Hockeybob]

As a 44 year old man and father of a 16 year old boy, It is frustrating that he does not have the opportunities to hunt wild pheasants here in Illinois the way I did back in the late 70's and 80's.
My father and his family hunted in Livingston County near Dwight, IL. We had a few farms which contained some hedge fences, cattails and ditches. We hunted hard back then but enough miles always resulted in birds. Our group once shot 16 roosters in a day when the limit was 3 birds per hunter for a couple years.
The farms are now gone and so are the birds. I still have the memories though. I want so badly for my son to experience just a little of what I did in my teens and twenties.
I was able to take my son to South Dakota three years ago. It was awesome. However, with school taking priority it just isn't in the cards for taking him now.
I take him to the State run release pheasant sites which are OK but nothing like the days when I was a kid. Thanks for listening to my ranting. Pheasant hunting runs strong in my blood. There's no other hunting that brings the same excitement for me. Oh how I wish the glory days were back in Illinois.

 

[FLDBRED]

A lot of us feel your pain.As a young boy I hunted in Pa. when the state used to harvest over a million birds a year,and we took it for granted.There are now a lot of people working hard to get some of those wild birds back.Like Chevy,pheasant hunting runs deep!

 

[beaglebob1]

A lot of us feel your pain.As a young boy I hunted in Pa. when the state used to harvest over a million birds a year,and we took it for granted.There are now a lot of people working hard to get some of those wild birds back.Like Chevy,pheasant hunting runs deep!

I am with you both. Ours was mainly quail. 70-80s we would push 7-8 coveys in an outing. We hunted KY and Ohio, those days are gone.

 

[Mr Hyde]

Same here I really don't remember any pheasant in IL in the 80's and 90's. here on the east side, we always went to Dewitt Iowa area to Pheasant hunt, but then I notice a trend in Iowa we have to move farther west every year to get birds and my last hunt I remember ending up hunting near Iowa city thats about an hour 1/2 away from our original starting spot. My buddy and I we're thinking to ourselfs this ain't good at all.

 

[1pheas4]

My father and his family hunted in Livingston County near Dwight, IL..

I hunted that area two or three times a year until '96. Pheasant hunting was great up until that point. For what ever reason #'s just plummeted around '96.


I have a farmer friend near there who had a lot of birds on his land. They're not there (pre '96 #'s) anymore despite the habitat still being there. He says coyotes are to blame. The thing is coyotes were there prior to the fall in pheasant #'s ('96).