A 9-year-old takes the course. Who must come along?Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Hunter Safety Education page: Age Requirements
A Conservation Police Officer asks a hunter for the hunter safety card. Is showing it on a phone accepted?Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Hunter Safety Education page: Hunter Safety Certificates
Besides passing the test, what must a student display to be certified?Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Hunter Safety Education page: Course Options
By statute, what is the shortest a firearms and hunter safety course may be?520 ILCS 5/3.2
Does Illinois recognize a hunter safety certificate issued by another state?Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Hunter Safety Education page: Reciprocity
For how long after finishing the online course is a field day voucher good?Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Hunter Safety Education page: Registration
For how long is an Illinois hunter safety certificate valid?Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Hunter Safety Education page: Hunter Safety Certificates
How long does the in-person field day course typically run?Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Hunter Safety Education page: Course Length
How many questions are on the Illinois hunter safety test?Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Hunter Safety Education page: Course Options
Show all 86 questions (77 more)
The certificate and the course, continued
How much of the instructor-led course must a student attend to be eligible for certification?Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Hunter Safety Education page: Course Length
Instead of a certificate, what other evidence does section 3.2 accept?520 ILCS 5/3.2
Is bowhunter education certification required in Illinois?Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Hunter Safety Education page: Bowhunter Education
What does a field day course student do before the field day?Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Hunter Safety Education page: Field Day Course
What does a person receive on completing the course, in the words of section 3.2?520 ILCS 5/3.2
What is the minimum age for the instructor-led hunter safety course?Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Hunter Safety Education page: Age Requirements
What may an instructor charge for under section 3.2?520 ILCS 5/3.2
What score passes the Illinois hunter safety test?Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Hunter Safety Education page: Course Options
Who needs hunter safety education certification before buying an Illinois hunting license?520 ILCS 5/3.2
Who visits most hunter safety courses to discuss Illinois hunting regulations?Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Hunter Safety Education page: Course Options
Youth and apprentice licenses 14
A 15-year-old holds a Lifetime Hunting License. What lets that hunter hunt alone?520 ILCS 5/3.2
A youth holds a certificate of competency from an approved hunter safety course. What changes?520 ILCS 5/3.1-9
Does the Apprentice Hunter License require hunter safety education first?520 ILCS 5/3.1-5
From what age must a waterfowl hunter have a State Migratory Waterfowl Stamp?520 ILCS 5/3.1
Is hunter safety education a condition of getting a Youth Hunting and Trapping License?520 ILCS 5/3.1-9
On private property, who must supervise an apprentice hunter?520 ILCS 5/3.1-5
On public property, what must an apprentice hunter's supervisor have besides a valid license and age 21?520 ILCS 5/3.1-5
What is the purpose of the Apprentice Hunter License Program?520 ILCS 5/3.1-5
When does a Youth Hunting and Trapping License expire?520 ILCS 5/3.1-9
Who may apply for an Apprentice Hunter License?520 ILCS 5/3.1-5
Who may hunt on farm lands without a hunting license under section 3.1?520 ILCS 5/3.1
Who must have a Youth Hunting and Trapping License to hunt?520 ILCS 5/3.1-9
Who must supervise a youth hunting on a Youth Hunting and Trapping License?520 ILCS 5/3.1-9
Without the supervising adult, what may a youth licensee not do?520 ILCS 5/3.1-9
Blaze orange, blaze pink and hours 9
A hunter takes rabbits in a county open to gun deer hunting, during the gun deer season. Does the 400 square inch rule apply?520 ILCS 5/2.33(ff)
Besides blaze orange, which color does Illinois law accept?520 ILCS 5/2.33(ff)
Between which times is it unlawful to hunt wild game, fur-bearers by rule aside?520 ILCS 5/2.33(y)
During which hours may the holder of a firearm deer permit take deer?520 ILCS 5/2.26
How much blaze orange or blaze pink must be worn in the field during the gun deer season?520 ILCS 5/2.33(ff)
Outside lawful deer hunting hours, how must a deer hunter's gun and bow be?520 ILCS 5/2.26
What must a person wear to take upland game with a firearm during the upland game season?520 ILCS 5/2.33(gg)
Which of these is "upland game" under section 2.33(gg)?520 ILCS 5/2.33(gg)
Which two articles carry the blaze color in the gun deer season?520 ILCS 5/2.33(ff)
Permission, dwellings and roads 11
A goose flies over a neighbor's field where the hunter has no permission. May the hunter knowingly shoot at it there?520 ILCS 5/2.33(t)
A hunter uses a bow and arrow, or a shotgun with shot shells only. What dwelling distance applies?520 ILCS 5/2.33(u)
How close to an inhabited dwelling may a hunter fire a rifle at game without permission?520 ILCS 5/2.33(u)
May a gun or bow be discharged from a public right-of-way or highway?520 ILCS 5/2.33(r)
May a hunter let a dog hunt on the land of another without permission?520 ILCS 5/2.33(t)
What does section 2.33(a) say about guns in a State refuge?520 ILCS 5/2.33(a)
What must a written authorization naming an owner's designee contain, besides the property description and the designee's authority?520 ILCS 5/2.33(t)
Where may a wildlife carcass not be left without the permission of the owner or tenant?520 ILCS 5/2.33(hh)
While hunting on another's land, a hunter carelessly breaks a fence. What does section 2.33(x) say?520 ILCS 5/2.33(x)
Whose permission is needed to hunt on the land of another?520 ILCS 5/2.33(t)
Whose permission lifts the dwelling distance restriction?520 ILCS 5/2.33(u)
Deer rules 13
A deer lies dead on a public highway. May a passer-by take it home?520 ILCS 5/2.26
A dog handler tracks a wounded deer during a firearm deer season. What must the handler wear?520 ILCS 5/2.26
A dog is used to track a wounded deer. How must it be controlled?520 ILCS 5/2.26
A hunter has taken the legal limit of deer by gun. What may that hunter no longer do?520 ILCS 5/2.26
A wounded deer is tracked with a dog at night. What may the handler not have?520 ILCS 5/2.26
Are scent products that cannot be eaten treated as bait?520 ILCS 5/2.26
For how long after bait is removed is an area still considered baited?520 ILCS 5/2.26
May deer be taken with the use or aid of bait?520 ILCS 5/2.26
What may a dog owner not allow the dog to do?520 ILCS 5/2.33(w)
What must a person obtain before attempting to take deer?520 ILCS 5/2.26
Which deer may never be knowingly taken in Illinois?520 ILCS 5/2.24
Which of these is not "bait" under section 2.26?520 ILCS 5/2.26
Which of these may not be used to take deer?520 ILCS 5/2.26
Vehicles, guns and conduct 20
A hunter cripples a bird that has a bag limit. What must the hunter do?520 ILCS 5/2.33(hh)
A hunter in a boat pursues a crippled duck with an uncased, unloaded shotgun. Within what distance of the blind?520 ILCS 5/2.33(z)
A pheasant is running on the ground, able to fly. May it be shot there?520 ILCS 5/2.33(z)
How must a bow be carried in or on a vehicle?520 ILCS 5/2.33(n)
How must a gun be carried in or on a vehicle?520 ILCS 5/2.33(n)
May a ferret be used to drive rabbits from their holes?520 ILCS 5/2.33(d)
May a person hunt next to a burning grass field?520 ILCS 5/2.33(h)
May a rifle be fired over a frozen lake?520 ILCS 5/2.33(q)
May a silencer be used on a gun while hunting?520 ILCS 5/2.33(s)
May a wild mammal be dug out of its den with a spade?520 ILCS 5/2.33(c)
May game birds be taken with a rifle, pistol or air rifle?520 ILCS 5/2.33(p)
May poison or explosives be used to take a protected species?520 ILCS 5/2.33(g)
May wild birds or mammals be pursued with a vehicle or an unmanned aircraft?520 ILCS 5/2.33(i)
Outside licensed preserves, a shotgun may hold how many shells in the magazine and chamber combined?520 ILCS 5/2.33(m)
Raccoon and coyote may be taken at night in season with which light?520 ILCS 5/2.33(i)
What does section 2.33b prohibit?520 ILCS 5/2.33b
What is the "usable meat" of a game bird under the wanton waste rule?520 ILCS 5/2.33(hh)
What is the "usable meat" of a game mammal under the wanton waste rule?520 ILCS 5/2.33(hh)
What is the largest shotgun gauge that may be used on protected species?520 ILCS 5/2.33(j)
Which birds does section 2.33(z) exclude from the not-flying rule?520 ILCS 5/2.33(z)
How this list was compiled: Written from the Illinois Wildlife Code, 520 ILCS 5, as the General Assembly publishes it at https://www.ilga.gov/Legislation/ILCS/Articles?ActID=1729&ChapterID=43 (sections 2.24, 2.26, 2.33, 2.33b, 3.1, 3.1-5, 3.1-9 and 3.2). All were read on 2026-10-13; each question names its section and subsection. The course facts (the 50-question multiple choice test and its 80% passing score, course formats and lengths, ages, the field day voucher, certificates) are the Illinois Department of Natural Resources' own, read the same day on its Hunter Safety Education page at https://dnr.illinois.gov/safety/huntersafety.html; that page is the published outline this page follows. It gives no time limit for the test, so none is given here. Licence: Own work. Questions, answer choices and explanations were written for this site from the text of the Illinois Wildlife Code and the facts on the department's public page; nothing is copied from a hunter safety manual, the department's study guide, an online course, a chapter review or an examination.
How it works
An unofficial Illinois hunter safety course practice test: our own questions from the Illinois Wildlife Code, for the 50-question test that ends the course. Firearm handling is taught in the class and at the field day.
Read the full guide
Hunter safety practice test: Illinois rules to know
In gun deer season anyone taking game other than waterfowl wears a cap and upper garment showing 400 square inches of blaze orange or blaze pink. Hunting another's land takes the owner's permission. A gun rides in a vehicle unloaded and cased. Deer are never taken over bait.
An area counts as baited for 10 days after the bait is removed.
Without permission, a rifle shot at game needs 300 yards from an inhabited dwelling; a bow or shot shell, 100.
Questions and answers
Who needs hunter safety in Illinois?
Anyone born on or after January 1, 1980, before buying a hunting license, under 520 ILCS 5/3.2. An Illinois hunting license from a prior year also counts. Youth and apprentice licenses let a supervised hunter go without the certificate.
How many questions are on the Illinois hunter safety test?
The Department of Natural Resources says 50 multiple choice questions with an 80% passing score, and gives no time limit. Exam mode here uses both figures. Students also have to show the maturity to hunt independently.
How old do you have to be to take hunter safety in Illinois?
There is no minimum age. The course and test are written at a 6th-grade reading level, and a child under 10 comes with a parent or guardian who is at least 16.
Can you take the Illinois hunter safety course online?
The department lists instructor-led, field day and online courses, depending on the student's age. A field day student completes an approved online course, then attends a free in-person day of about 6 to 8 hours that ends with the test.
Is this the official Illinois hunter safety test?
No. It is unofficial and not affiliated with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The questions are our own, written from the Wildlife Code; none comes from the department's test or its study guide.