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Illinois bow season opens Oct. 1 with few changes

Illinois’ archery season opens Oct. 1 on the heels of a few successful seasons for bowhunters. Last year’s archery harvest of 73,785 deer was the second-highest in a five-year period, just behind the 75,106 taken in 2020. (Stock photo)

The DNR has floated the idea of establishing additional Restricted Archery Zones in other parts of the state, but this year’s bow season opened Oct. 1 with only the original zone: the same cluster of central Illinois counties that limit harvest to antlered deer the first 31 days of the season.
The special zone shrunk from five counties to four last season, when Moultrie County was dropped. In 2026, bowhunters in Champaign, Douglas, Macon and Piatt counties again make up the zone.

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