Illinois public quality has been chipped away at during the last 30 years most notably by removal of NR quota, crossgun inclusion, & ban on new land acquisition (all caused by corrupt politicians, not the DNR). However, the main constant is still the short post-rut firearm seasons, firearm hunter quotas, and freedom for individual state properties to incorporate additional site specific barrier-to-entry restrictions. These have been enough to keep quality on some, not all, afloat.
Indiana has OBR, but that is it. I’m also glad they have it, but it’s no factor at all at KB nor JP. As one guy tags out there’s two more to fill his shoes lol. The stats show that too, as well as increased annual pressure by still increasing numbers of shotgunners cutting in on the long archery seasons via crossguns. When I moved to LaPorte from IL in 2019 I dropped by the KB HQ to pick up a copy of the 15 year site harvest records. Talk about a long steady decline, lol. And when I asked the CO’s about the deer herd there, all they talked about was it was a good place to shoot a doe. 😂 Their moral was low, to say the least.