It's MOSTLY what you'll see in your home state.

Let me inject something. For the first month and a half of this season I saw two P&Y bucks and if not for impatience and ignorance for not trimming a good sized limb on an adjacent tree I should have killed a 145-150 class buck. I was the only hunter hunting that land at the time. Lost permission to that land but thats another story[].

Move to the past week.....exactly 7 days. I gained permission to hunt land 2 miles away as the crow flies. It had been hunted twice all season by another guy who had little interest in hunting it. The first afternoon there I saw two P&Y bucks. After watching deer the first three trips it was pretty easily seen what the patterns were simply because the deer felt safe using this property. Probably should have got a shot at a 130-135 class buck yesterday evening but an unseen doe busted me and it was over.

What I'm saying is perhaps their are more bigger bucks here because of lower pressure overall. Lots of that is due to land access or the lack of. Are the deer easier to kill...........no!!!! There are also less deer in many areas. In Matt's case I'd venture to say there are more deer in his chosen area than in others. There was a 190" class deer in bow season on public land near me this season. I don't hunt there often at all due to the pressure. Some nice bucks there to be sure, but less deer as well.


Talked to a guy from S. Carolina who belongs to a hunt club. Told me he prefers Iowa and Kansas over the places he has hunted in Illinois. Says he sees less deer and less people in Iowa/Kansas but more bigger bucks. It all depends on where you are hunting.