Double Creek

I read in a magazine the other day that you are 3 times more likely to kill a P&Y in IL than any other state.

If I could choose anywhere to do my November hunting it would IL or IA. Either one would be ok with me.

silentassassin

What this statistic doesn't show is the number of hunters per state. I have seen a breakdown of the average number of hunters averaged with the average number of both P & Y and B & C entries and it paints a different picture. The same states are in the top five but they are in different order. I don't remember all the specifics but Illinois was #1 in that respect.

adams

One other thing to keep in mind when it comes to Pope & Young or Boone & Crockett records, They only caount record book animal that have been submitted.

Who knows how many record book calibre animals are taken and never entered.

silentassassin

Adams,

You hit on a good point. Very rearely does anyone in my neck of the woods sumbit a deer. I bet I know of 50-60 deer that would make P & Y and 8-10 that would make B & C in my area that have never been scored. I personally have never entered a deer in the books and I know some guys with SEVERAL "book" mounts that have never sumbitted their deer either. I know that goes on everywhere but I wonder if it's not also somewhat of a regional thing also.

bearklr

I have to agree. People are pushed by marketing such as hunting videos but there are other motives behind selection as well. For example, I chose Sask. as one of my two. Granted, they do have large deer but the main reason was the type of racks. I prefer really dark heavy racks. I know alot of states here in the lower 48 produce more p&y deer per year but that is not always a deciding factor. But then again, if it wasn't for the videos I probably would have never taken Sask. into consideration.

MT elk addict

I have lived in Montana almost my whole life. I believe it is the real tree people that just bought a ranch near my home town of Savage, MT 2 or 3 years ago. The people who bought it do the monster buck videos. It is good dear contry, it has whitetails and mulies. The only thing is, is that they don't think any people should hunt the land next to their ranch. It is private land also and I guess they get pretty upset when anyone is close to their land. It sucks but I guess thats life now days. I am not much of a deer addict, but I am an elk addict. There are still places to hunt in Montana and that is what I love about this state. We are also growing some big animals these days. I guess I will just be happy with hunting here and this year I am hoping to stick a nice mulie.

wolfen68

If I were you I would put a stand in a vantage point to be in the background of Michael Waddell's favorite tree stand so maybe you can get a cameo appearance in the next Monster Bucks video! So have you met any of the realtime boys? How long do they usually spend there in The Milk River...how many acres do they own? If you need help shooting any of those Montana mulies or whities just let me know cuz I am an addict.

hunter25

I believe the question, "Outside of your own state, where else would you like to hunt?" gets asked about once every 6 months on this particular board. I didn't respond to this one, but in the past I have answered Canada (yeah, not too specific) and/or Texas for just one reason...different terrain, different hunting conditions, different challenges. Here in the midwest we have very similar types of terrain, climate, etc. to which we hunt in. Going from IL to IA or IN isn't that much different...although both have great whitetail populations. TV, hunting videos, magazines are pretty much all we have to go on for where we would like to take our "Dream Hunt". Having worked in the advertising industry for almost 10 years, media can be one of the most influential things in our lives...without us even realizing it.

Woodline Bucks

I agree that the videos do portray this. I live in Iowa and believe we do have some of the best bucks in the world. I am sure many of you believe that your state is the same. I know that the hunting industry is becoming more and more of a money game. Iowa has almost doubled its out of state hunting fees on Iowa deer licenses. I believe it is going to get worse, last year the world record was shot in Iowa. I think that this was attributed to a number of conditions. The deer population in Iowa is at, or near, an all time high. There are simply more deer making it through hunting seasons to the next year. The hunting videos and magazines have done a nice job of changing alot of peoples minds to shooting only trophy bucks. Also, the vegetation here is hard to beat. I think any state in the union can produce this quality of deer, but I also believe that the midwest is a hot spot.