Looking at leasing land in either Illinois or Kentucky next year. Looking for some feed back about Kentucky, any opinions?

Kentucky is good. You want to be in western part. Trigg, Crittenden, etc Some Big Deer and good numbers. 3 of us hunted a not so large tract several years ago. First guy missed, 2nd Killed a 130 8 point. I passed does and small bucks and ate a tag.

Both states can be really good or really bad. Just depends on the county and many numerous factors. Best advice I can give, is do your research on the county you have found land available to lease. Go put some boot leather down on the tract before stroking a check. Find out as much information about the surrounding neighbors (meat hunters, manage, etc.) as possible. Lease the most land you can afford. The bigger the tract the easier to manage if that is your interest.

I have been very blessed with land I lease in both states and my issues have been minimal over the years. If you do the work required before hand you significantly reduce your risk of acquiring a gar hole.

Kentucky has a much longer gun season than Illinois and that does matter in some areas!!

Don't do it, it will ruin you.

Kentucky is the only way to go,illinois hunting sucks,I live there 6 months of the year for 17 years have never hunted there,Obama land! Big dollar state.
I start my tracking season the first week of September in Kentucky,the bucks are huge! There are some awesome public hunting places. Like the lbl.land between the lakes.
Kentucky hunters take several 200" deer every year.
I took a nice 8pt in the lbl with minimal scouting with my bow,area is loaded with deer.

Echo everything Squeaky says above but also several other different factors to consider.

1) Do you bow hunt or are you strictly a gun hunter--Illinois has no rifle season and is restricted to shotgun/muzzleloader and has a much shorter season whereas Kentucky has a longer rifle season plus two other muzzleloader seasons as well. You can get some awesome bow hunting however in Illinois during peak pre rut/rut because of the lack of guns firing off everywhere however.

2) How important is harvesting more than one buck to you--Ky only allows one on private ground whereas Illinois allows 2?

3) Most important to me as I have held leases in both states and continue to have one in Kentucky is the driving distance. I can be at my Ky lease in 3.5 hours whereas unless you are hunting Southern Illinois you can be looking at a 8-12 hour drive. This is not something most of us working folks can enjoy more than once or twice a year, whereas if I wanted I could be in Kentucky reasonably quickly and have multiple hunt opportunities.

Hunting either states will ruin you on Alabama hunting or at least North Alabama hunting in my opinion.

I like Ky and Il. Each has its pros and cons.

What I like about KY is using a deer rifle during the gun season. They also have an early muzzleloader season.

Another thing is their early archery allows an opportunity at a Velvet buck.

The weathers good, you see deer, some nice hardwoods, deep hollers, and easy to see sign in.

Also it is a lot closer. half the drive.

The only con I can think of is you only get ONE BUCK. However that very reason is why you see so many bucks hunting there.

However in Illinois to shoot 2 one tag is around $300, another $400 and a license ( a bow and a gun tag). Your out over $700 to get two deer.

One thing for sure. You will really like it compared to a lot of hunting in Bama. Anywhere in KY you can shoot some pretty nice bucks IMO compared to a lot of the hunting here.

The rut is usually pretty wide open too.

Good luck and let us know which way you go