After a long history of being a shotgun only deer hunting state, Illinois is the most recent state to join the movement by allowing straight walled/single shot rifles to be used in the pursuit of whitetail deer. While the ammunition industry has advanced shotgun slug technology significantly in the …
Pre-Rut Whitetail Hunting Using Calls & Deer Decoys Hunting whitetails during the pre-rut can be a great time to get a shot at a mature deer. Cupple the right weather conditions, trail-camera scrape monitoring, a good food source, and you have all the right ingredients for a high-quality pre-rut hunt. …
Tips For Opening Day Pheasant Hunting
By Chris Larsen
Opening day of pheasant season is a lot like the first day of school. Everyone is wearing their fancy new clothes, people are wandering around aimlessly, and lessons are about to be learned. Hun
Three Ways To Introduce A Kid To Hunting
Sun fading brightly in the western sky, the clouds bled vibrant pink and orange. The group of deer milling under the stand of my father and I had nary
An In-Depth Look at Shot Sizes, Loads & Chokes for Pheasant & Quail Hunting A good deal of my experience comes from 55+ years of hunting quail and pheasants, mostly in Illinois, but more recently in other states and involving other species. Reloading experience comes from shooting skeet since 1985 …
Shed season to the most avid shed hunters has an early, middle, and late season. And each has its own unique strategy. Unfortunately, we are entering the latter end of the season here in Illinois. We’re at our peak hiking levels; most of us are probably in the best shape …
You hear the phrase “Premier Pheasant Hunting Outfitter”, but really what does that mean? More importantly, what makes a Lodge a Premier Pheasant Hunting Outfitter? Premier Pheasant Hunting Outfitter- What It Takes The first thing has to be pheasants. Sounds so simple, but it is a little more complex than …
Numerous factors lead to when a buck sheds its antlers. Stress related to weather is one of them. This year, here in West-Central Illinois, we’ve hardly had any snow, and other than a few short days of extreme cold, this winter has been mild (so far). We had an extreme …
That time of the year has come when many folks think that the hunting season is over. While this may be true for deer and waterfowl, it is not the case for Upland Bird Hunting at Heartland Lodge. We had a busy fall and early winter season and our huntin
Hunting Outfitters in Illinois Heartland Lodge prides itself on being the premier hunting outfitter in the nation! Located in West-Central Illinois, we are a full-time dedicated deer, upland, waterfowl and turkey hunting outfitter. Heartland Lodge Outfitters continually strives to provide the best hunting experience possible that a hunting outfitter can …
