White tail (courtesy statesymbolsusa.org)

I’ve already confessed my weakness for gun-oriented clickbait. So I was well-up for grandviewoutdoors.com‘s article Where to Hunt the Biggest Deer. You know how these things go: a protocol-heavy preamble followed by a top ten list extolling the virtues of each state’s advantages. One click per state. Nope. Dr. Dave Samuel’s article is all about the variables: states with the highest buck harvests, the number of hunters per state, the state’s size, the bag limit, season length, the quality of the bucks bagged and licensing requirements. And the winner is . . . “Some numbers and data to consider as you decide where to take that Midwestern deer hunt.” Where’s the guy who says “there’s an app for that” when you need him?

20 COMMENTS

  1. We have lots of deer in CA. Lots of them. Lots. But they aren’t big critters. None that I’ve seen so far. I opted for a .243 for my meat rifle because we also have pigs here.

    But if Iwas just going to hunt CA deer I could probably get by with an accurate bolt .223.

    • We hunt moose and deer with our cars here. Obviously you want one of those older cars that wont peel.

      In all seriousness, 308 or 30-06 is used the most here. This is helped by cheap Mausers in those calibers that the militia used before.

      • I’ve seen cars that tangled with deer. Never moose. Closest I’ve come is a car vs. horse. Both lost.

  2. I bagged a deer this year a lot bigger than that specimen only a few hundred yards from my house. The thing is, the biggest deer – at least around here – are in the suburbs. No hunting pressure, lots of tasty Hostas (and the occasional igit homeowner that feeds them). Find a bow stand in the suburbs, you will not be disappointed. In fact, quite a few people I know consider it grocery shopping, not hunting.

    • Yeah, but…trophy bucks aren’t near as tasty as Bambies. I had the opportunity to eat some fawn once that had been hit by a car. Instant death with no adrenaline dump beforehand, dressed immediately afterward. I normally don’t care for venison but the young fawn was good eatin’.

  3. Lol I could probably decimate a herd of deer by just shooting randomly out my window in the morning. Usually about 10-30 of them.

    • I remember working at a nuclear facility in the Chicago region years ago and just inside the facility’s fence were big herds of deer grazing away. No hunting allowed. Wonder why….

  4. Where is the video the deer being hunted with helicopters and fully automatic AR’s? Is this not TTAG???

  5. KS is on the hit list, but I can report big bucks are here, but that is all you hear about. The mid range bucks that have always been here are few and far. Drought has obviously caught up. Don’t believe all the celebrity pictures you see. I can speak for one that simply didn’t happen. I will just ask you this. Have you seen her hunt aired yet? Nope. Your guess is as good as mine, but my money is on BS. Keep in mind good bucks are still taken in the western part, but not as portrayed this airing season.

  6. We’ve got some good sized deer in Maine. Not big mulies with high bag limits like other places. This year I bagged an 8 pointer that was dressed at 155 lbs Buy yielded 70 lbs of boneless lean meat. Don’t tell DiFi that I dropped him with a .223 out of my AR.

  7. I live in colorado and the other dad we had some pretty big deer behind the house. It was interesting as they came back in the afternoon, too bad it’s aresedential area

  8. Glad to see MS wasn’t mentioned. We have enough out of towners during hunting season tramping around the woods and shooting everything that moves as it is. But we have so many white-tail (2nd biggest population behind only Texas and greatest population density) I could probably kill a dozen every day on my way to and from work. But that concentration of animals leads to smaller bucks.

  9. Deer arent breaking into cars, doing home invasions, or selling heroin. Cut em some slack!

  10. “Where to Hunt the Biggest Bucks”

    Dont worry about it. I’m sure somewhere in Texas is fine.

    Moving on, next article please.

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