Cass, Schuyler, Mason County, Illinois · 10,360 acres
Sanganois State Fish and Wildlife Area Hunting 2026: Species & Access
Sanganois State Fish and Wildlife Area covers 10,360 acres near Chandlerville in Cass, Schuyler, Mason County. A bottomland complex of sloughs, backwater lakes, timbered ponds and bottomland timber — mostly willow, maple and cottonwood — sitting right at the confluence of the Sangamon and Illinois Rivers. Established in 1948 primarily as a migratory waterfowl refuge and public duck-hunting area.
01 — What you can hunt here
| Species | Notes |
|---|---|
| Waterfowl | Tens of thousands of migratory ducks pass through, plus American white pelican, tundra swan and trumpeter swan — the site's primary management purpose. About 60 blind sites are allocated through the annual permit lottery. |
| White-tailed deer | Archery hunting on the roughly 10,300 open acres makes Sanganois the largest public archery-deer area in the state. |
| Wild turkey | Present and huntable under statewide seasons. |
| Furbearers | Present across the bottomland timber. |
02 — Access rules specific to this WMA
- Waterfowl hunting requires a special Sanganois SFWA permit, allocated through IDNR's annual permit lottery — this isn't the general statewide waterfowl permit, it's site-specific.
- Permit holders who want to hunt Knapps Island or the Squirrel Timber unit must additionally enter a daily drawing held one hour before legal shooting hours at the Chandlerville check station.
- Roughly 500 acres are open to walk-in waterfowl hunting for anyone who doesn't draw one of the 60 blind sites.
- Deer archery hunters need only the standard Illinois hunting license and habitat stamp — no site-specific permit for archery deer, unlike waterfowl.
04 — Facilities
Camping: Not specified as available on the area. No shooting range on-site.
IDNR runs active habitat management on the site year-round — expect ongoing moist-soil unit and timber work rather than a static, unmanaged marsh.
05 — Where to go next
Sanganois runs a two-tier access system that's easy to misunderstand: winning the annual Sanganois-specific permit lottery gets you eligible to hunt, but the two most contested spots — Knapps Island and the Squirrel Timber — still require showing up for a same-day drawing at the Chandlerville check station an hour before shooting light. Anyone shut out of that has the roughly 500-acre walk-in area as a fallback. Deer hunters don't face any of this — archery access here runs on the ordinary statewide license, and the property's size makes it the largest public bowhunting ground in Illinois.
Illinois hunting license costs and permits →
Verified · Illinois Department of Natural Resources · Last verified 2026-08-09
Publisher's note. Read from IDNR, retrieved 2026-08-09. Review due 2027-08-01. WMA-specific rules and closures can change between seasons — confirm before you hunt.