ORIGINAL: Schultzy
A top end buck for me where I hunt would have to be in that 160" class. I've seen 4 booners in the 21 years I've bow hunted. They ranged from 170" to 180" I'm guessing. The average big buck I see every year is in that 135" class, usually about 40 yards out[:@]. I see allot of 115" to 120" bucks, they get the pass every time. I know we have 190+ plus bucks around! I've seen the pics of a few from a friend of mines Cudde, he live's 10 minutes from me. This same friend of mine use to have the Minnesota State Record for Non-Typical Archery back in the late 80's, gotten beat since. His buck scored 204" non typical. Another guy about 5 minutes from where I also hunt shot another big non typical, he scored in that 230" range. There around here, just damn hard to actually get to see.
This is the point of my thread, what is the top end buck of
your hunting area.
It's just about what I figured, even in big buck areas like the midwest, a 160 is where the air starts getting thin. I think that the results of our hunting contests are in line with this also. I realize that there are some places where a 130 is a top end buck also.
In 17 years of trophy hunting I have seen only 6 that are 170+. Glad I'm not holding out for a B&C. [:-] It shows just how special these bucks are.
In North American Whitetail magazine it shows a chart for top 10 states and provinces for B&C and P&Y entries. Ill is #1 for B&C at 873 entries and Wis is #2 with 853. For P&Y Wis is #1 with 6348 and Ill is #2 with 4892. Even in the top two states there are 5-7 times as many P&Ys as there are B&Cs (granted that some P&Ys are B&Cs). Again, a 170+ buck is something to behold. Not many people will even see one much less kill one.