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ORIGINAL: Illinois Buck Hunter

There definantly isn't one in every woodlot. I have hunted Illinois for 10 years now. It is nothing like what you see on T.V. in my woods. However, I'm in no way acting like it is worse or equal to some places in the southeast.

Most private land around here is even over hunted, and shotgun season is FILLED with hunters in nearly every ridge top. I'm not going to act like we don't have any big deer, because there are some absolute brutes taken from my area every year. However, I can't really relate to alot of the stories about the hunts that occur on mega managed lands and outfitters.

If you are able to own land and manage it how you wish, then yes you will be able to grow large deer, and probably kill a few. But from MY EXPERIENCE, I don't understand why people say hunting in Illinois is easy.

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ORIGINAL: hardcorehunter

Yep..IA, is always going to have big bucks. Food, cover, low pop of people and no gun season during the rut, plus no over the counter tags sold. MN and MO allow guns during the rut ansd over the counter tags sold..coincidence they don't have as big as bucks..yet geographically the same. I think not.

Too many hunters out east of the Mississippi IMO. Move west young man..low pop of people and big deer. Plus Obama is from IL..enough reason to leave that state.[8D]

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ORIGINAL: TEmbry

Im confused, can you expound on how no hunting during the rut allows for bigger antler growth over a deer across the state line? Because guns aren't allowed during rut in IA, a 5.5 buck there has bigger headgear than a 5.5 deer across the line in MO or MN?

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ORIGINAL: TEmbry

My honest opinion? I think people's views are skewed.

A guy will hunt a state such as PA, NC, AL, FL, TN, KY,___(fill in the blank) and they get frustrated. They are hunting average hunting grounds like everyone else. Then said person will take a trip out of state, but here is the kicker...when they come to the promised lands to hunt, they don't hunt normal hunting grounds like the majority of hunters living there do....they go with a big wig outfitter who has access to 30,000 acres in the Golden Triangle of prime time land managed for huge bucks...and huge bucks they see. They go from hunting standard lands to hunting the mother load of all managed farms to hunt, and attribute the difference to state lines. They return to home state, and tell everyone how much people in IL, KS, IA, __, etc have it made, huge bucks behind every tree.

Are states in the midwest managed better than other areas? Possibly.
Do deer in the midwest naturally have bigger headgear on average and bigger body size than say a coastal VA, NC, or FL counterpart? Obviously.
But a Mature buck is a mature buck...If you can kill them in___ on NORMAL HUNTING LANDS (the kind of land you and I gain access to), then you can more than likely kill them in ____. Obviously each state will offer unique challenges, some being more difficult than others...but it is all relative.


Before anyone gets their panties in a wad, I am not basing this off of anyone here (sort of), the post was spurred by someone I know personally who just got back from hunting Pike County IL, and how easy deer hunting is up there.:eek:

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When you have over 300,000 bowhunters as we do(MI), and some large managed parcels of private land and leases as we do, there will always be some impressive bucks taken. But there is absolutely no way of comparing Michigan and our trophy buck numbers to those of other midwestern states with lower hunter densities. In most midwestern states every bowhunter can hunt areas where there are multiple mature bucks running in the area, that is definitely not the case here in Michigan.

I have been hunting state land and knock on door properties for 45 years and have seen less than 10 bucks in the field that would score over 150 inches gross. On my 10 out of state one week hunts, I have seen at least twice as many 150 plus inchers.

I have the latest entry numbers from the Pope & Young club for 2004:

State P&Y entries Bow Hunters

Wisconsin 506 249,644
Illinois 427 120,000
Iowa 227 47,100
Kansas 135 21,080
Michigan 70 310,000

The average score of the bucks from the other states are also 15 inches larger, because taking a P&Y qualifying buck in those states is just not a big deal.

We can't hold a candle to other states in terms of taking mature bucks. But there is no doubt that the ban on baiting along with many hunters over the past ten years practicing their version of QDM (most practice quality buck management not quality deer management) that we will continue to improve in the mature buck catagory. You also have to keep in mind that while we have so many hunters that there are still large areas of private property hunted by few where mature bucks are rather common.

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