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Mid West Large Bucks

Can anyone tell me why certain states have a tendency to produce the largest bucks year after year? Ex, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, always wondered. Is it genetics, Feed, Illinois and Iowa because no rifle hunting, just curious.

RE: Mid West Large Bucks

Map of Boone and Crockett bucks by county

RE: Mid West Large Bucks

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Why do some counties produce so many entries?

Answering this question is difficult since so many natural and man-made factors come to bear. Still, the relationship between record book entries and river systems is plainly evident throughout the country, especially in heavily farmed states. For example, in Iowa the best deer counties are not the most heavily farmed, but tend to have a mixture of farmland and forest cover associated with river bottoms. Counties bordering the Missouri, Mississippi and Des Moines Rivers account for the majority of entries from Iowa. This pattern is evident in nearly all states, especially along the Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri River systems.
The relationship between deer densities and number of entries is also interesting. States with high deer densities and long firearms seasons with liberal bag limits produce, on balance, fewer entries. States with lower deer densities, shorter gun seasons, and more restrictive buck harvests tend to produce more entries. A good comparison is between Ohio, which averages around 10 deer per square mile, and Mississippi, which averages more than 30.

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The all-time best counties are Buffalo, WI, and St. Louis, MN with both recording 62 entries.

I got my B & C buck in Buffalo county WI this year :D
Link

RE: Mid West Large Bucks

it depends on terrian,whether,food,and genes. big bucks get big because the eat corn,beans,clover in the midwest.plus the midwest has harder winters big bucks got to survive.most of the terrian is flat not many hills,less calories for bucks to burn.and big bucks turn noc turnal,that is why some big bucks get real big.plus you add food.monster bucks get grown in these areas.and one thing to rememeber is that some seasons don't last long in these states. the south there is a few monsters get killed every year.but up north it is not nothing to see a big buck. i have hunted in illinois big bucks up there.

go deep hunt hard.;)

RE: Mid West Large Bucks

Interesting Information! I was surprised of the number of entries
from the state of Maine. You dont hear much from them guys up there.:D

Thanks for posting it.;)

RE: Mid West Large Bucks

i think you will see the south start catching the midwest before long, my opinion but the biggest will still be midwest

RE: Mid West Large Bucks

This is reasoning I have heard from some guys in S. Illionois. In the part I hunt they say there was a glacier that ran through that area back in the ice ages. They even have a scientific name for this particular glacier. The glacier covered all of the "golden Triangle" in Illinois. Well, upon it' arrival in Illinois it was said to have stopped. When it got there, it dug out all the trenches and ridges. Anyone who has been to Central and S. Illinois knows what I mean. Well, it then stopped, and melted there. The glacier was said to be moving West to East. When it melted, all the minerals that it picked up along the way melted into thge soil and remains there today.

I read in F&S, that a trophy buck can be shot in EVERY county in IL because Illinois has one of the best, if not, the best nutritional contents in it's soils. Is this true....dunno, sounds good though. Either way, lots of big bucks here in IL, and i'm glad to hunt here.

j

RE: Mid West Large Bucks

wihunter32

the information you provided was very interesting and i truely believe what was posted, with that being said, i'm wondering if areas with big industry tend to have smaller deer.....possibly because of pollution. i live in an area of pennsylvania that has every aspect of what you mentioned with the farmland and rivers and we have the allegheny national forest running right through warren county also. we can blame it on the winters because i know minnasota has to have worse winters than we do. this got the old light bulb on now.

RE: Mid West Large Bucks

thelastboyscout, I live in PA also. We do have the potential for big bucks in this state. We will never have them in the quantity of the midwest states for a couple of reasons.

One is that we have much higher hunter density...just a ton of hunters compared to the midwest.

Another reason is that we allow rifles in our gun season. On average, states that only use rifled slugs produce more top end deer. States that have the mississippi river running through it have historically produced more top end bucks.

I don`t know about southern states ever equaling midwest states for shear numbers of big bucks, but Kentucky has put more in B&C in the last 5 years than just about any other state. They may even be number 1 in the last 5 years.

Even with the rising popularity of midwest whitetail hunts, those states don`t begin to realize what true hunting pressure is. In PA, we just mow the herd every year.[:'(]