WI record books

[Bucky]

^^ I kid I kid..

[tim]

the record books are fun to look at but we can only go by what we see. none of my friends or neighbors or myself put any deer in the books. none of my amish neighbors put deer in the books. now this is just me 1 person saying this and I know of handfuls upon handfuls of deer not put into the books that could be. buffalo county educated some of us what not to do(record books) if you don't want that zoo of folks wanting to hunt there and driving up the cost of leases/land. im sure there are many on here that can echo me.

[Stanley]

This turned out to be a great thread. I like to see what others think and being the devils advocate. Even if we often have different opinions on things. A seed is often planted to get us to think out of the box. Be pretty boring if we all thought the same.

[JoeRE]

the record books are fun to look at but we can only go by what we see. none of my friends or neighbors or myself put any deer in the books. none of my amish neighbors put deer in the books. now this is just me 1 person saying this and I know of handfuls upon handfuls of deer not put into the books that could be. buffalo county educated some of us what not to do(record books) if you don't want that zoo of folks wanting to hunt there and driving up the cost of leases/land. im sure there are many on here that can echo me.

X2. If I was a little more far sighted (or selfish) I probably would not post a single pic of a buck online. But...I like to look at other's pics and have decided the decent thing to do is share a few in return, so I do. There may come a day I regret that There is so much big-buck-fever these days that unfortunately is proving to be cancerous to other aspects of hunting, and yep, I am guilty of that too.

[JoeRE]

This turned out to be a great thread. I like to see what others think and being the devils advocate. Even if we often have different opinions on things. A seed is often planted to get us to think out of the box. Be pretty boring if we all thought the same.

Agreed!

[Stanley]

the record books are fun to look at but we can only go by what we see. none of my friends or neighbors or myself put any deer in the books. none of my amish neighbors put deer in the books. now this is just me 1 person saying this and I know of handfuls upon handfuls of deer not put into the books that could be. buffalo county educated some of us what not to do(record books) if you don't want that zoo of folks wanting to hunt there and driving up the cost of leases/land. im sure there are many on here that can echo me.

Good post. I would bet a good sum of money the majority of record book qualifying bucks do not get entered. I put 5 or 6 in the books but haven't put one in the books for well over 20 years. I have never even seen my name in the books and at this point and time don't even care that I never will. I'm sure there are tens of thousands of bucks not entered.

[fishlips]

the record books are fun to look at but we can only go by what we see. none of my friends or neighbors or myself put any deer in the books. none of my amish neighbors put deer in the books. now this is just me 1 person saying this and I know of handfuls upon handfuls of deer not put into the books that could be. buffalo county educated some of us what not to do(record books) if you don't want that zoo of folks wanting to hunt there and driving up the cost of leases/land. im sure there are many on here that can echo me.

I agree and it's a definite downfall to the graph I put together, but I do think there is at least a little merit to it.

It would be interesting to see what the WI DNR does with all the data they collect. They seem to get a lot and require every deer to be registered. They would have some very interesting data that could show public vs private split. I have not asked for any of this or really looked that hard for it, but it would be interesting to see.

[rutnbuck]

My county shows up but isn't known real well for big bucks. There here. I have 13 that made book but never put them in and I'm a member of one of those clubs. The hunters around me don't put them in either. It's just not a big deal for many I know. I'm fine with that.

[ Post made via Android ]

[DaveT1963]

Hey i thought I'd offer my services as an unbiased outside opinion. Just need a couple of you to set me up in good spots in both west and east Wisconsin. I would really like to help you guys settle this... Probably take five good sessions to get a consistent read

[ Post made via Android ]

[Bucky]

No one cares about net P&Y deer in WI... you shoot a net 210-220"+ non typical something tells me most would want to share that one! It is human nature... maybe you guys are the outliers

Looking across the board it looks to me like the magic # is 200+ net. You shoot one that big and record keepers come to you

200" net is a RARE animal

[ Post made via Android ]

[DaveT1963]

No one cares about net P&Y deer in WI... you shoot a net 210-220"+ non typical something tells me most would want to share that one! It is human nature... maybe you guys are the outliers

Looking across the board it looks to me like the magic # is 200+ net. You shoot one that big and record keepers come to you

200" net is a RARE animal

[ Post made via Android ]

And all but a few states can only hope for a 200+ net buck every decade or so......

[ Post made via Android ]

[tim]

bucky, I have never shot a 200" net or gross yet and might never. im not sure that would change my mind about putting in record book,if anything I would think it might make me want to put it in even less as to not draw attention to the area. I currently hunt 3 countys in Wisconsin. I have shot a nontypical record in 1 of those counties with my bow and I did not enter it in any book,as a matter of fact one of the other guys that hunts the same property also shot a nontypical record for that county had he entered . not sure which one of ours scores more their close. he wont enter his either. I think people would be shocked just how many people really don't enter scores into books. I don't have anything against it , I look through the scores it just means little to me personally I guess. i wont pass a buck either if say it doesn't score a certain amount, any deer is an accomplishment, any mature deer is a trophy to me regardless what is on his head. like i said before bigger antlers don't make a deer smarter it just puts a bigger target on his back(chest )

[Bucky]

Tim - I lucked into a 190" whitetail gross... I didn't have it scored either. But... I think if I ever shot that one that qualified for B&C All Time Records I probably would have it officially scored. To each their own

I realize many don't get entered... but people in Vernon/Racine Cty are no different than people in Buffalo... an equal amount of the population will choose to enter vs not. The stats by the B&B Records tell a story.... the Western Ctys of WI are your highest odds at shooting a Monster buck... that was the point of the original post

[ Post made via Android ]

[tim]

I for sure agree with you bucky, the western counties definitely have a better chance at the rare monsters.

[Harvestor]

Big deer come from hills mixed with agriculture. I live in a flat agriculture county. Very few big bucks come form this county. You can go one county away 30 miles and it is rough hilly ground. There is no comparison in the amount of big bucks in that county compared to the county I live in.

Some say genetics, I say much harder to hunt the hills and the bucks get more age, plus good food sources. We have good genetics in the county I live in the bucks just get killed off before they get any age.

It has to have something to do with soils though too.... I live in flat ground in Central WI. I hunt in areas where bucks can reach maturity yet the biggest I know of in the area was 188" gross non typical. I rarely see one over 160"

I hunted two seasons now sparingly over in West WI (Tremp Cty) and I missed a 160" class deer and seen some other monsters killed by others in our group... 160-177". The bucks we get on camera are mind boggling too... some that have to push 190-200"s gross. IMO... it is the soil + age + deer #s vs food available. There are less deer but they are bigger in body and rack. Harder to hunt too with the hills and drainages

The crops grown on that side of the state also look way more lush and tend to stand a foot or two taller than the central side of WI

The soils are much better in the county I live in than in the rough rocky ground those big bucks are coming from. We have black rich soil that produces some of the best crops in the world. I do think some of the soil in the rough hill ground is good not great though. A lot of it is much sandier/rockier for sure.

Don't confuse the texture/type with the chemistry. The dolomitic stuff has all the building blocks necessary to produce big bone. The chemistry separates outstanding whitetail habitat from world class.

Most the the outstanding whitetail habitat in the US can be mapped by looking at an alfisol distribution. Think about the best whitetail destinations in the US and look at the map.

My opinion is not scientific by any means, but this map, to me, is telling...I didn't read through all the posts so maybe someone already said this, but beyond even the state level, the known best counties/areas, within the individual individual states, for producing big(gest) racks in that state are almost all dark brown, i.e., SW PA, SW OH, Southern IL, Western WI, SE Iowa, etc. Very interesting. All the areas I have hunted are white...