Jim read the earlier post on the East Coast's suburban monsters and wondered: Where are the other top 9 big-buck factories in North America? According to research by Joel Helmer, Ph.D in Quality Whitetails magazine they are:
9. South Texas
8. Southern Indiana (red hot and moving up on list fast)
7. Eastern Kansas (I'm rifle hunting there for TV this December!)
6. Northern Missouri
5. Southern Ohio (remember yesterday's 200" giant?)
4. Western Kentucky
3. Eastern or Southern Iowa (see picture)
2. Illinois (I might muzzleloader hunt there this winter)
1. Anywhere Wisconsin (Jeff B., Doug, Ian, Jake and you other Packers fans already knew it)
Thanks for the post Mike.
Looks like the midwest still rules in the whitetail world!
Jim
Posted by: jstreet | June 20, 2008 at 12:46 PM
Since GA did not make the list, it sounds like a family "road trip"!
Posted by: Landflip | June 20, 2008 at 01:49 PM
It's still hard for me to think of Wisconsin as #1 for monster bucks. It must be all those years of not shooting anything in my younger years. I always think of Iowa or Illinois as being #1.
You know Mike, if Wisconsin really is #1 for big freak-nasty bucks, shouldn't you be hunting up here?
Posted by: Doug In Wisconsin | June 20, 2008 at 03:48 PM
I just drove through Wisconsin last night on the way home from my walleye trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness north of Ely, Minnesota. My look out over Wisconsin once again reinforced the notion that the kick butt habitat mixed with short gun season (late rut) is a serious combination for the production of giants. The blufflands are absolutely beautiful!
Southern Indiana has always ruled our state. Nearly 70% of Indiana's all-time B&C bucks have come from the counties south of Indianapolis. With the OBR it's only getting better there.
And to see Minnesota's habitat is absolutely mind boggling. If that state would merely tweak their firearms structure they would rule all of the entire midwest...hands down.
The boreal forest "up north" has to hold some dingers in certain spots. With huge tracts of unbroken forest, there has to be some dingers up there, even though the nutritional plane isn't as high as in the lower midwest.
Hanback, have you ever considered a hunt up north in say, Minnesota...eh?
It's great to be back!!
Time to start thinkin' about deer hunting...eh?
Posted by: Dean Weimer | June 20, 2008 at 04:02 PM
Great post Mike. Rifle hunting in Kansas? Isn't that like winning the lottery? I heard its hard to get a rifle tag there, mabey not quite that hard. Damn, im surprised that Kentucky is #4. My new in-laws live there, might have to do some reserch on that state. Anybody have any good suggestions on some good public hunting grounds in Kentucky?
Posted by: Scott | June 20, 2008 at 05:47 PM
Here's a bit of interesting info on the top 8 areas for big bucks that I think many will find interesting. Of the top 8 areas (all of the areas except Texas and the East Coast suburbs) all have a mid-November gun season or special muzzleloader season before November (some offer both).
Wisconsin: Gun/Muzzleloader season dates, November 20th-Dec 11th.
Illinois: Gun season, November 21,22,23
Iowa: Early muzzleloader season October 13-21, gun season in early December.
Kentucky: Early muzzleloader season, October 18-19, gun season November 8-17 or Novermber 8-23 (depending on zone).
Ohio: Early muzzleloader season October 20-25, gun season Dec 1-7.
Missouri: Gun season November 15-25, Muzzleloader season November 28-December 7.
Kansas: Early muzzleloader Sept 22-Oct 5, gun season December 3-14.
Indiana: Gun Nov 15-30, muzzleloader Dec 6-21
Every state has either a mid-November gun opener or a earlier muzzleloader season (or both) and yet, these are the top 8 big buck states in the country. So much for gun seasons devastating the buck populations!
Jim
Posted by: jstreet | June 20, 2008 at 06:05 PM
Ohio's early muzzleloader season is antlerless only and only held in certian areas, I believe it's called wildcat hollow, morgan county.
Posted by: BH | June 21, 2008 at 12:49 PM
BH,
I checked into the special muzzleloader season for Ohio and pulled this from the DNR website:
Special area muzzleloader hunts Monday, October 20 through Saturday, October 25 at Salt Fork, Shawnee and Wildcat Hollow.
Muzzleloader hunts at these areas will no longer require a special permit and hunters may use either deer permit for this hunt.
The bag limit remains at one deer of either sex with any antlered deer harvested counting toward the one-buck yearly limit for the year.
Unless I'm reading this wrong, it appears that for this hunt you can kill either sex, but your buck will count towards the yearly limit of one.
Jim
Posted by: jstreet | June 22, 2008 at 05:16 PM
Thats right Jim, but those areas in Ohio are a total of less than 1% of the state, and they are all public, meaning it has very little impact to the state as a whole.
Posted by: Chad | June 23, 2008 at 06:37 AM
Jim,
my mistake I thought I read somewhere that it had been changed to antlerless only, at any rate it's better than it was. For many years it was buck only.
Posted by: BH | June 23, 2008 at 07:17 AM
so much for our secret:< hanback you neeed to hunt wisconsin period anywhere in the state
Posted by: ian in wisconsin | June 23, 2008 at 11:55 PM