Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Illinois deer hunting rifle calibers allowed

Does anyone here hunt Illinois? This past year they have allowed centerfield pistol and rifle cartridges. But the list the state provides is not a complete list.

a bottleneck centerfire cartridge of .30 caliber or larger with a case length not exceeding one and two-fifths inches, OR
a straight-walled centerfire cartridge of .30 caliber or larger.
Both must be available as a factory load with the published ballistic tables of the manufacturer showing a capability of at least 500-foot pounds of energy at the muzzle.
Full-metal jacket bullets may not be used to harvest deer.

So my question for any Illinois experts in a single shot rifle or pistol are the 308-30/06-7.62x39 allowed??

Nope. Straight wall cartridges only, or bottleneck cartridges with a case shorter than 1.4"

All rifles must be single shot or have a plug or magazine modified to limit the rifle to only 1 shot.

They don't want hunters competing with the gangs and weekend shooters in Chitcago

Isn’t a 30/06 bottleneck? Or the 7.62x39? The 300 blk out is allowed. That’s pretty close to a 7.62x39…

I thought the 7.62x39 would work, but it's case length is 1.52 inches. If you want .30 caliber, your best option appears to be the .300 BO at 1.36 inches.

If I were forced to use a single shot, I would choose a single shot and not bother with modifying a repeater. Given your restrictions, a CVA Scout in .300 BO, 350 Legend or 45-70 would be in my shopping cart.

I used my Scout in 300 Blackout last season, and it worked dandy at short range with 110 TAC-TX handloads.

Plugged 375 Winchester and 327 Federal carbines are on my short list for this season. I was hoping to pick up a 32-40 to use this year, but life hasn't cooperated when it comes to finances.

Nice job and a handy little package to hunt with. One of our Texas members has posted many times about the effectiveness of those 110gr. Tac-TX bullets. If I were using the 300 BO, that's what I'd have loaded.

I've got a Scout 350 Legend that I rechambered to 360 BH I'd be using in a state like yours. I hunted with it in Mississippi during primitive season, but didn't get any volunteers to try it out on.

I can understand using some of your lever guns, can't say I wouldn't plug and use them.

Looks like it’s 45/70 and 44mag.

Not exactly, 45-70 is out with a case length of 2.105.

With all of the rules, it seems like they are almost causing a teenage delinquent to fire a 7mm RM into the ground on opening morning to see how long it takes for a warden to show up.

45/70 is in. Straight wall

Here is the list

45/70

500 nitro

458 win mag

But no 308-30/06 etc

https://dnr.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/dnr/hunting/documents/ilsingleshotrifle.pdf

Thanks for the cartridge list, that cleared it up.

The list sure looks like they are trying to keep bullets from traveling too far but then I think of Billy Dixon and a 45-70 making long shots in the Indian wars..

I'd be buying a CVA Scout in 45-70 without the muzzle brake and hunt happily!

Yeah. Or stick to a semi auto slug gun.

A lot of the state is pancake flat with very few trees.

View from my back yard... only place there is much in the way of wood or elevation change around here is along rivers or creeks. The southern and northwestern parts of the state are more hilly.

Illinois has MONSTER deer!

Doesn’t matter

That's for sure... unfortunately I only ever see them standing in the middle of the highway at 4am, not from my deer stand 🤣


Fact.

Was just replying to colodog's statement as the "logic" behind the state's decision. Still beats the hell out of slug guns. The price of slugs/sabots has gotten absolutely stupid, and they aren't particularly fun to shoot, either.

Exactly. A 5 round box of sabots especially 20ga now is beyond ridiculous!

If you look at that list of approved deer hunting calibers for illinois…

9mm+P
45acp
30 carbine
40s&w
Among others that are just stupid!

Deer aren't particularly tough, just about anything will kill them up close. There's been a boatload of deer killed with 22LR.

Heck, big bore air guns are legal now in quite a few states, and those aren't very potent vs just about any centerfire in terms of energy. If they were deer legal here, I'd probably pick up a 45cal pcp.