What does it mean to tag a mature buck? Tagging a mature buck typically means successfully hunting an experienced buck. You do need to hunt in season and buy tags giving you permission to hunt with whatever you plan to use. Who may this affect? This of course affects many people such as hunters, families, and meat markets. When it comes to deer season many people get their meat during this time making it a very important part of the year. Hunters are the prime example of being affected because they can finally go out and hunt for a year’s worth of meat. Now meat markets help process the deer meat to your preference such as jerky, sausage, or ground meat. When does the hunting season start? The season begins and ends with various hunting guidelines such as what weapon you are allowed to use. Now for the baseline hunting season it starts in October and ends in late January. Now where may this be happening? In Illinois it is happening as of November 17, 2025. This is a great time to start as the season is just warming up. Now why do we hunt and why only during certain months of the year? We do this to help regulate the population and harvest meat for whatever the intended use may be.
“This year’s hunting season has already shown great promise,” parent Tim said. “Trail cams have shown what we need to see this year.”
When it comes to hunting there are various methods such as a firearm or archery.
“We have already seen SIU supervised deer come around,” brother Liam said. “Setting up our crop plot has really brought more attention to our area.”
This year’s hunting season is looking great. The deer are active due to the urge to mate and need for food. The reason for the deer also being so active is because with it getting so cold they have to stay moving to remain warm, if you see a young buck running around aimlessly that is completely normal. They still haven’t matured meaning they are chasing the doe while the mature bucks don’t. They find each other by rubbing their scent glands on objects, basically making a trail right to them for other deer. Why are the mature bucks not like the immature bucks? Well the mature buck have learned to wait for a mate instead of chasing them, this makes it rare to find a mature buck while hunting making it a huge rush when seeing them. This year’s hunting season is looking very promising for Illinois as it is just beginning.
