Welcome to Illinois Learn to Hunt
Who Are We and What Do We Do?
The Illinois Learn to Hunt program provides FREE education and training workshops to teach ADULT participants how to hunt deer, turkey, squirrels, pheasants, ducks, geese and other game. Check out our upcoming events and register for a free event!
News and Reports
- The 2025-2026 Illinois Digest of Hunting and Trapping Regulations has been released in English. Stay tuned for Spanish and Polish versions!
- The Illinois Public Hunting Areas Report: 2024-2025 Wildlife Harvest is available.
- If you’re trying to narrow down public land sites you might want to hunt for specific species, this is a great place to start. Jason has a great short video on how to do that here.
- National Deer Association’s 2025 Deer Report has been released
- IDNR’s Summary of 2024 to 2025 Illinois Deer Seasons (Harvest Report) has been released
- Trap Use, Furbearers Trapped, and Trapper Characteristics in the United States in the 2023-2024 Seasons has been released
Our Latest Content
Trail Camera Data Management Webinar Recording
This free webinar is all about how to use trail cameras effectively and how to manage the data so that it can be more useful to hunters!
Deer Bedding Webinar Recording
Learn all about deer bedding behavior. Find out how to tell the differences between a buck bedding and doe bedding areas, then learn how to use this information to select hunting locations.
Hunting Illinois Podcast: Ep.65 | Fall Hunting Season Goals
The team gets together to talk about their various goals for the fall hunting season. Dan goes over some season updates and highlights how to use the crop report to help keep track of the food resources deer may be using. Lauren covers the IL Deer Tracking Network and how important it is to make sure you give your deer time before pursuing it after the shot.
Deer Hunting 102 Recorded Webinar
A great follow up for Deer 101, this webinar is less focused on regs and instead covers calling, tree stands (and not using tree stands!), scent control, and what to do after you take your shot.
Deer Hunting in Illinois 101 Recorded Webinar
The most recent version of our annual Deer 101 webinar! If you are interested in learning how to hunt deer in Illinois and want a breakdown of regulations, how to find spots to go, how to find deer on the landscape, and information about legal hunting methods, this is the place to start! This year’s version is a little longer than usual due to great questions asked by our participants at the time of recording, but we have a slightly shorter version that is also on our YouTube page under our Deer Hunting playlist.
Squirrel Hunting 101
Interested in learning how to squirrel hunt? We will go over Illinois regulations, finding spots to go, finding squirrels on the landscape, hunting methods and process a squirrel together virtually.
Hunting Illinois Podcast: Ep.64 | Trapping BMPs w/ Special Guest: Bryant White
We were joined by Bryant White, who is the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies (AFWA) Trapping Policy Program Manager. He has lead the research being done to determine trapping best management practices since 2002. Through AFWA’s work, standards in trapping have been developed to use methods and traps that are the most effective, selective, practical, and humane as possible.
LtH Webinar: Illinois Hunting Overview for Beginners
This webinar is for anyone who has thought about hunting but has no idea where to start. We go through all the types of hunting IL has to offer. What permits, licenses, and gear you will need to get started. We even cover what to expect and help you decide which species might be best for your hunting goals. We hope this gives you that extra nudge to get started. Good luck!
Have a question about hunting or trapping in Illinois? Have an idea for content you’d like to see?
Let us know!