crabclaw

It's about$500.00 for a nonresident Iowa tag that you have to get drawn for. Wisconsin is a over the counter $160.00. (This is for archery)

WIbuckchaser

They're all good I have no idea which is the best. Get enough neighbors to cooperate and you can make it happen anywhere in a known big buck state.

The Outdoorsman

Iowa hands down.

Redclub

Wis. registers more B-C bucks than any other state ,almost double the other states but I believe Ill. has a few bigger ones.
Redclub

Father Forkhorn

I wonder, though, if number of hunters factors in to it. Kansas (my state) enters plenty of trophy bucks in the books but with nowhere near the hunter numbers of a state like Wisconsin (we also have less deer, FWIW).

Also, our success rates seem high, probably because deer are more concentrated into patches of cover. I compared it to Michigan once (where my family lives), and if memory serves, we get about double the number of tags filled successfully. Presumably, that means it would be easier to run into a bigger deer simply because he doesn't have as many places to hide (not that a trophy deer is ever easy).

Pardon me if my $.02 only muddies the waters.

Primetime/IL

Illinois or Iowa

EndeavorShooter

For a fair chase non pay hunt. You just can't beat Indiana!!

fishguts

You could make a case for almost any of the states you listed. It all depends on the area you are hunting--hunting pressure, terrain and cover, etc. In other words, you stand a good chance of killing a 170 in Iowa, KS, IL, WI or OH ifall the ingredients are there.

crokit

IMHO, NY State has been somewhat of a sleeper through the years. In fact, until the Early '60's, Roosevelt Lucky's buck-Allegany co.- was the # 1, prior to the Jordan Buck emerging.

BarnesX.308

Pennsylania had 1 million hunters for many, many years. Many of them hunting forested-only public land.

On PA land with decent nutrition and low hunting pressure, we're seeing a lot of big and heavy deer in the last several years.