Are the glory days of deer hunting coming to a close?

[BenA]

You can have great soils and not produce great antlers. You can also have great antlers without great soil. If I had the choice, I'd take the great soils because they're capable of producing great food for great antlers. But, I'd want the whole area to be producing great food so the generations of deer in the region have access to them. It's an uphill battle if there's not great food all around.

 

[SwampCat]

I’m surprised how small the central WI one is.

Haha - that one in central WI the same size as the one in my area where documented average size of 5.5 yr old bucks is right around 115”

 

[homerj]

Much of central WI is part of the "sand counties". Poor soil, poor nutrition, poor antler development

 

[Brian662]

They still get big in central WI. Waupaca County has some impressive deer.

 

[T-Max]

I wonder what the Hansen buck would have done as a yearling. He didn’t have tremendous mass when he was harvested. This isn’t the whole story., though it makes for interesting conversation.


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[SwampCat]

I wonder what the Hansen buck would have done as a yearling. He didn’t have tremendous mass when he was harvested. This isn’t the whole story., though it makes for interesting conversation.


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Even though our “average” 5.5 year buck scores about 117”, every now and then a 160” buck is killed and a 174 1/2 NT was killed by a next door neighbor - the deer was sharing my property. I think it still stands as largest in the county. I have lived here for almost 50 years and never seen a buck with 30” of mass. Thirty miles away, in an area with an abundance of high lime calcareous soils - a number of mid 180’s have been taken. There can always be some outliers.

 

[matinc]

This is 7.5 years old on sandy poor soil and no agricultural fields. So when I hear they don't get grow large I just laugh. I let this buck walk at 5.5 and 6 5

 

[SwampCat]

This is 7.5 years old on sandy poor soil and no agricultural fields. So when I hear they don't get grow large I just laugh. I let this buck walk at 5.5 and 6 5

Would that be representative of 7.5 year old bucks in your hunting area?

 

[omicron1792]

Yep. Anecdotes and norms are two totally different things.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

Giant Deer of Iowa are rapidly becoming a past memory

I am trying to understand why some folks would be so against eliminating a buck tag. I think the three things mentioned have been: 1. Would promote high grading 2. Inability to shoot cull bucks 3. data indicates the vast majority arnt shooting multiple bucks anyway Here are my questions: 1. Re...

iowawhitetail.com

This thread from Iowa Whitetail has been posted here before, but if you haven't checked it out I think there are a number of good discussions going on there that are related to what we have been discussing here.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Really wonder how much drones, thermal optics, subsonic ammo with suppressors, etc impact the illegal taking of some of these deer.. Would be real hard to catch anyone illegally using this stuff on their own property in addition to poaching on others. Pisses me off just thinking about some of these things and the selfish c-unts that would utilize them illegally.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Pulled 6 cameras this weekend. This was my biggest deer. Let the good times roll.

 

[Mortenson]

Really wonder how much drones, thermal optics, subsonic ammo with suppressors, etc impact the illegal taking of some of these deer.. Would be real hard to catch anyone illegally using this stuff on their own property in addition to poaching on others. Pisses me off just thinking about some of these things and the selfish c-unts that would utilize them illegally.

I think this thread could've ended after the 3rd post. First 3 posts handled it.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Pulled 6 cameras this weekend. This was my biggest deer. Let the good times roll.
View attachment 87371

I can understand some frustration after letting that camera soak for 8 years..

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I can understand some frustration after letting that camera soak for 8 years..

Don’t get me started. I’ve tried setting it several times.

 

[Mortenson]

Don’t get me started. I’ve tried setting it several times.

Same issue on my remaining brownings. This pic is from a couple wks ago.