buckmine

I recently had seen the deer density population of deer by county throughout the US. Is it possible that the big deer are growing where the population isn't high?

The reason I am asking this is because I am not familiar with other states counties and where the big deer are being harvested.

When I look at the US as a whole, the medium density was the color green. The states of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Ohio were mostly green. These states are producing big deer lately. Parts of Illinois and Texas were green. So the states that are partially green, is that where your big deer are harvested?

Sorry if this is hacked and doesn't make sense. I don't claim to get my point across smoothly......

2droptine

Well Ill chime in for IL i guess,
Im not sure where you got your map but I'm ASSuming for IL its shows West Central IL (Pike county and surrounding) Northwest, and Far south.

This is where Deer Densities generally thought to be the highest, I do know of some other honey hole counties, But every year you get giant deer of a nowhere county in IL. and its a safe bet to say that a monster lives in every county in the state.

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Bucky10

Big deer depend alot of other things besides density. Is there enough food, water, are they getting the right minerals, is the buck to doe ratio kept balanced? Alot of things depend on big deer.

buckmine

I understand that there is more to it than deer density. I thought because deer density is lower in some areas, that would lead to less compititon for food which would increase a deers size. I am not familiar with other states and when I saw the distribution of deer at

http://www.i-maps.com/qdma/

I wondered if polk county Ill. was in a high density area or lower density area. Do Texas deer get bigger in low density area or high density area. I look at Texas bucks and think how do there racks get bigger than northern deer racks even though there body is smaller? Do they feed them that well down there that there racks loook impressive?

Just wondering.........

Testing

Tazman

Density can have an effect on the size of deer if they are overpopulated, limiting the food resources, however from what I have read and heard, deer are larger up north due mainly to the fact that larger animals have a higher survival rate in cold climates because thier body mass allows them to not only be warmer, but gives them the ability to go longer periods of time during the lean periods of the winter with less food than a smaller deer. In Va. deer tend to be larger in the areas where a lot of soya bean and corn are raised than in the mountains.

The Tazman aka Martin Price
Proud father of a Devil Dog

2droptine

Its a fact sometimes here in IL especially in counties with booming suburbs where there is few acres available to hunters yet alot of Forest perserves and woodlots, that the deer population is very low, but you can bet there are some big boys running around due to lack of hunting pressure and alot of habitat for the small population.

Yes Polk County has alot of deer its a premier IL hunting destination, I took a look on that map, keep in mind that it is an average and there are honey holes everywhere. Also South Texas is probably the most heavily Whitetail managed location on the planet, thats why the big racks. Keep in mind there are something like 8 subspecies of whitetail deer. luckily we have the biggest in IL.

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