13. Of the four Illinois River public shooting grounds — Sparland, Woodford County, 

 Spring Lake, and Liverpool — the largest bag per acre occurred on the Liverpool Areas, fol- 

 lowed by the Sparland, Spring Lake and Woodford County grounds. The largest bag per hunter 

 for the 3-year period was at the Sparland Area, followed by the bag at the Liverpool, Spring 

 Lake and Woodford County grounds. 



14. Methods of hunting, kinds of ducks killed, and various factors affecting the 

 kill varied for each public shooting ground In the Illinois River valley. 



15. Factors contributing to a low Individual bag on public shooting grounds In the 

 Illinois River valley were found to be (1) large number of hunters (2) hunting Interference 

 (3) Inexperience of many shooters (4) lack of proper equipment. 



16. Blinds would aid In raising the total bag at the public shooting grounds of the 

 Illinois River valley other than the Sparland area, which was populated largely by ruddy 

 ducks. It may be advisable to build floating blinds on the Woodford County Ground, for a lack 

 of suitable shooting sites resulted In a low bag In spite of an abundance of ducks. 



17. Rest or refuge areas should be established adjacent to or In connection with 

 public shooting grounds, for they Induce waterfowl populations to remain In the region. 



18. On most good hunting areas, especially where the bulk of the ducks are mallards 

 or pintails, the number of hunters should be limited to permit a satisfactory bag per hunter. 

 This satisfactory bag might be set at an average of three ducks per hunter per day, or It 

 might be set at the number per hunter per day at which the total kill In a given area levels 

 off. If the first bag number Is selected. It would permit, roughly, about 15 hunters per 

 square mile; If the second policy were chosen, the capacity would be about 50 per square mile. 



19. More public land should be acquired to furnish more hunters with the opportunity 

 to hunt waterfowl. This measure alone would not necessarily raise the bag per hunter, and a 

 satisfactory system of regulating the number of hunters should be adopted to supplement It. 



LITERATURE CITED 



Baumgartner, F. M. 1942. An analysis of waterfowl hunting at Lake Carl Blackwell, Payne 

 County, Oklahoma, for 1940. Jour. Wildlife Mgt. 6(1):83-91. January. 



Mulvlhlll, Wm. F., and L. D. Cornish. 1929. Flood control report: An engineering study of 

 the flood situation In Illinois. 111. Dlv. Waterways. 402 pp. 



U. S. Biological Survey. 1939. The waterfowl situation: 1938-39. Wildlife Res. and Mgt. 

 Leaf. BS-136. 18 pp. May. 



Wilson, Vanez T. 1938. Management of public shooting grounds. N. Am. Wildlife Conf. 

 Trans. 3:633-9. 



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