Deer Season Safety
Monday was the official opening of Archery Deer Season in Illinois, marking one of the busiest times of the year for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, also providing the DNR an opportunity to remind hunters of making safety a top priority.
Illinois Conservation Police are in the field during the hunting seasons, enforcing hunting regulations and working to ensure the safety of hunters. Last year, a total of 19 hunting related incidents were reported to the IDNR, three of which resulted in fatalities.
Seven of the reported incidents involved injures resulting from a discharge of a hunting device, six of them involving firearms and the other involving an injury to a hunter while firing a crossbow.
Ten of last year’s incidents involved tree stands. While hunting from an elevated tree stand has its advantages, far too many preventable incidents happen each year when hunters are installing, climbing into or out of, or sitting in tree stands. Hunters should always carefully inspect their tree stands and follow instructions for installation and use.
Most importantly hunters should use a fall arrest system, full body harness when hunting from tree stands.
A free course on tree stand safety is available at huntercourse.com/treestandsafety
