SOUTHERN ILLINOIS - The deer are game in Southern Illinois this weekend, the beginning of the firearm season for hunters.

With an estimated 350,000 acres of huntable land open to the public in the region, according to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, deer hunters are expected to fill up available camp sites and spend a little extra in local stores and gas stations for supplies.

Crab Orchard Campground shop host John Rosenberger already had a couple trailers occupied by deer hunters early in the week. While shotguns can't legally fire on deer until Friday, and not past Sunday, hunting season for many individuals goes beyond waiting to get a deer in the crosshairs.

"Butch" Jansen and David "Butch" Beer, both of Germantown in Clinton County, arrived at the Crab Orchard Wildlife Refuge Monday to set up camp.

Beer secured a light around the trunk of a tree with thick green wire - a hunting season tradition, Jansen said.

Beer and Jansen have been regulars to Southern Illinois during hunting season since the 1990s. One reason they gravitated to the region for the weekend is more public hunting ground, Jansen said.

It also gives them the satisfaction of spending time away from the stresses of daily life and catching up with one another.

"Camp camaraderie is the best," Jansen said.

Rosenberger said early campers will be joined by waves of hunters Friday at dusk. He said campers traditionally file into the campgrounds at that time.

"We get about 40 to 50 here for both shotgun seasons," Rosenberger said.

Shotguns, muzzleloading rifles and large-caliber handguns are permitted firearms for the three-day season. Archery season, which began Oct. 1, is suspended during the firearm season.

It is only a small fraction of the total hunting population Southern Illinois sees this time each year. The returns to the deer check stations generally run in high volumes as well, Rosenberger added.

The Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge holds 23,000 acres of huntable ground, according to IDNR. Rosenberger said 925 deer came through the checking station during the first shotgun weekend last year.

Rosenberger said hunting permits are still available, and the quickest way to get them is through the IDNR Web site. As for the opening season outlook:

"I think it's going to be a good year," Rosenberger said. "The bucks are really starting to chase the doe."

Charlie Loury, a 62-year-old retired Archer Daniels Midland employee from Decatur, doesn't consider himself a master hunter - although he is the oldest person in his hunting group visiting Devil's Kitchen Lake this weekend.

"We've been coming down for 25 years," Loury said. "We just enjoy it, really. I wasn't going to come this year. Some of the guys got in touch with me and said, 'You'd better.'"

Loury and his group are in the area for a nine-day stay. It extends beyond the actual hunting weekend, but Loury has been doing the routine long enough to keep busy.

"I have a little ritual," he said. "We come down on a Saturday and set up. Sunday morning I normally go to church, usually go out to eat on Monday night, watch some football, and after that am then ready to hunt."

The IDNR reports interest in deer hunting in Illinois appears to be higher than ever. Officials say they appreciate the interest, since hunting season is a key aspect of population control among deer.

The department, however, urges hunters in Gallatin, Hamilton, Massac and Saline counties to participate in a study for chronic wasting disease in the animals. More than 65 cases of CWD have been found in certain spots of Illinois since 2002.

This year, the IDNR, in conjunction with the Illinois Department of Agriculture, intends to collect more than 5,000 tissue samples from deer as part of an ongoing surveillance program.

In Southern Illinois, hunters can volunteer tissue samples from a kill at the following locations:

Gallatin County, Patton's Truck Stop, Illinois 1 and Illinois 13 near Junction

Hamilton County, Hamilton County Conservation Area near McLeansboro

Massac County, Veaches Service Station, U.S. 45 and Illinois 145 in Metropolis

Saline County, Strictly Outdoors, near the intersection of Illinois 13 and U.S. 45, in Harrisburg

caleb.hale@thesouthern.com 618-529-5454 x15090