Hunting in Illinois: Online Resources and Mobile Apps to Enhance the Field Experience

Hunting has gone high-tech these days with hundreds of websites and mobile applications that work to enhance your hunting experience in the field, bother before departure and while you are out.

From helping you improve your aim to stopping you from accidentally trespassing on private property, there is an app for nearly everything hunting-related these days, although not all are created equal.

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However, before you get to apps, your first online stop should be the website for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, which regulates hunting in the state. The website is a comprehensive tool that gives you the ins and outs specific to hunting in Illinois.

The Illinois Hunter website is another good research specific resource for hunting in Illinois, and provides easy direct links, which link back mostly to the government website, however.

There are also numerous apps at Illinois hunters' disposal. Check out Hunt Predictor to help boost efficiency. Game & Fish magazine, which reviewed hundreds of hunting apps on the market to find their top 15, called Hunt Predictor "one of the coolest apps on the market for making sportsmen more efficient. Hunt Predictor uses a combination of GPS positioning and weather to determine the optimal time for you to hunt."

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Another worthwhile app is iHunt Journal from Nature Software. Fish & Game magazine, which listed iHunt among its top 15 hunting app picks, described it as "the most robust and powerful app for all species in the e-hunting journal market.

The app utilizes a clean layout with all the features for tracking daily adventures at your fingertips. Some of the most useful features are the observation function, harvest record keeping, GPS, and a weather overlay. This app has everything you need to begin journaling your next hunting adventure."

Another app is HUNT Maps, which is an excellent resource for the field as it uses your phone's GPS to tell you whether or not you have wandered onto privately owned land where hunting is illegal in Illinois without the permission of the landowner.

This article is for information only. Please check current regulations before hunting.

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