The Department of Natural Resources has announced that Illinois hunters killed nearly 52,000 deer during the 1st weekend of the state's firearm hunting season.
The preliminary total is 51,830 deer which were harvest last week. That's down by around 4,000 deer during the same period in 2013.
Jackson County had the largest number of deer killed at about 1,500.
The 2nd half of the firearm deer hunting season will take place between December 4th and the 7th.
The muzzleloader season for deer is from December 12th through the 14th while the archery season continues through January 18th.
