In Iowa I think it’s the following…

Food (nutrition)
DNR (they really have a great program)
Hunting practices
Less people
Shot gun only (except for the southern 2 county rows, they now allow High Powered Rifles due tothe low people and high deer population)
Short shot gun seasons 1st is only 5 days and 2nd is I think 10 days
Crop filed provide lots of cover and again we all know how much corn these deer eat!

Never herd of the soil playing a vital part in non typical bucks… but if some scientist thinks it can then well…

I say available deer resources I hunt in Mid-North Missouri In Mexico,MO there's just fields of corn,beans,and Alphapha but to add to this where I hunt there's a ton of woods for deer to take cover in and its not just Deer were pretty abundant in everything coyote,squirrel,fox all those woodland critters. Would not want to hunt anywhere else!

the crops

IMHO, all the above.

i agree. the midwest has better agriculture which means better nutrients which makes bigger racks and healther deer

To me the midwest is where deer live....

the rest of the areas with deer, are almost like transplants....they're there, but do they really belong? and how good are they?

but i think if deer were managed, just about anywhere can grow monsters....but ya the midwest has alot of great natural things going for it...

1) The potential for bitter cold helps to thin out small deer.

2) Here in Iowa, our gun season is after the rut when big bucks are not so sex crazed. Big buck are more likely to survive.

3) Good nutrition in farm country.

4) More selective hunters.

5) Lucky genetics.

I have noticed that more states are producing higher numbers of big deer. I think this is due to more people passing on smaller bucks; a QDM mindset. It also helps that the doe stigma is almost gone. When I was a kid most tags here in Iowa were bucks only and even if you had one of the coveted any sex tags, most hunters would shoot any buck before shooting a doe. Now a large number of hunters will shoot does before they shoot anything but a big buck.

I see pictures of monsters coming out of almost all of the cold weather states now. There are more big deer coming out of the South than in the past too.

Bob

all of the abovegratefull nw ohio hunter-we rock

Bits-N-pieces of all the above!
Agricultural states
Less pressure
Archery and Shotgun only
Shorter seasons
Harsh winters, weeding out inferior genetics
With the abundance of bigger bucks, comes better selectivity

Actually the Whitetail deer did not originate in the midwest. It orginated in the east. In fact most of the orginal home range of the whitetail is in the 13 orginal colonies, and places like WVA, Kentucky, and parts of the Ohio valley in small numbers. The greek name for the whitetail is actually "virginia deer". the whitetails being that they have adaptive nature followed the humans to a degree. Sure they were already present in midwest states, but they actually did begin to be very noticable until farming the midwest took place in the 1700's the whitetail has traditionally followed man across the country. You make a farm they will show up.And now people are evening seeing them in California.