Midwest Whitetails

When you put the words "trophy" and "whitetail" together three regions of the country jump off the map--western Canada, Texas and the Mid-west. This is not to say that record-class bucks aren't found elsewhere, but these three regions own the records book for historically producing the most high-ranking bucks.

Wikipedia defines the Midwest as including the north-central states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. For this column, I'll narrow things a bit to just cover Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Michigan. I will pick up the remaining states in next month's issue.

Within the all-time ranking (1830-2008) among states or provinces with at least one whitetail deer entry, these states fall into this order for total number of entries. For typical whitetail, Illinois ranks #2 with 592 entries, followed by Iowa ranking #3 (536), Ohio #8 (314), Indiana #12 (221) and Michigan #15 (126). In the nontypical category the all-time rankings by state are, IL #1 (423), IA #2 (356), OH #8 (169), IN #12 (129) and MI #14 (80).

Narrowing this search to just the last ten years, this same ranking shows IL at #2 with 330 typical entries, IA #3 (241), OH #6 (200), IN #9 (144) and MI #14 (45). For nontypical bucks we see IL at #1 with 257, IA #2 (159), OH #6 (97), IN #8 (93) and MI at #15 (25).

A few of these numbers jump off the page. For one, in the typical category, the top state in this region (Illinois) has produced 56 percent of its total entries in the past ten years, Iowa 45 percent, Ohio 64 percent, Indiana 65 percent and Michigan 36 percent. On the nontypical side we see Illinois entered 60 percent of its total entries in the past ten years, IA 45 percent, OH 57 percent, IN 72 percent and MI 31 percent.

Conclusions

This should be pretty telling. Of the fifty-three states or provinces that have at least one whitetail deer entry in B&C records, these five states clearly rank among the best for both typical and nontypical trophies over this past century and, more important, in the past ten years.

Nearly every county in each state has entries, so total entries are distributed over a wide area. But we do see a clustering effect within these top counties. Between Iowa and Illinois the counties of Allamakee Clayton Dubuque, Jackson and Jo Davies (IL) all border each other. The same is true for Adams, Brown and Pike counties in Illinois. Oakland, Washtenaw, Jackson and Hillsdale counties in Michigan cluster together in the southeastern part of the state. Licking, Coshocton and Muskingum and Highland and Adams counties in Ohio all share borders. Indiana is the one state with a more random geography of counties, with only Parke and Putnam bordering each other.

"Trophy whitetails are where you find them" is a true-enough statement. So is "You won't find a trophy no matter how hard you hunt if they don't live there." Based on the data, the counties within these states clearly offer the best odds for holding record-class bucks in the Midwest, or anywhere.

B&C Record Book Minimums

Typical/Nontypical

All-time Book:170/195

Awards Book:160/185

All-time Rank by State or Province

Typical

#2 Illinois: 592

#3 Iowa: 536

#8 Ohio: 314

#12 Indiana: 221

#15 Michigan: 126

Nontypical

#1 Illinois: 423

#2 Iowa: 356

#8 Ohio: 169

#12 Indiana: 129

#14 Michigan: 80

All-time Rank by State or Province--Last 10 Years

Typical

#2 Illinois: 330

#3 Iowa: 241

#6 Ohio: 200

#9 Indiana: 144

#14 Michigan: 45

Nontypical

#1 Illinois: 257

#2 Iowa: 159

#6 Ohio: 97

#8 Indiana: 93

#15 Michigan: 25

Top 5 Counties For Past 10 Years

Illinois/Typical/Nontypical

Jo Davies: 29/7

Adams: 22/23

McHenry: 22/5

Pike: 21/25

Brown:17/10

Iowa/Typical/Nontypical

Allamakee: 32/12

Jackson: 24/10

Clayton: 23/11

Warren: 21/10

Dubuque: 17/11

Ohio/Typical/Nontypical

Adams: 13/4

Coshocton: 11/2

Muskingum: 10/2

Licking: 9/12

Highland: 8/3

Indiana/Typical/Nontypical

Parke:11/11

Greene: 7/5

Jennings: 7/2

La Porte: 7/4

Putnam: 7/3

Michigan/Typical/Nontypical

Washtenaw: 14/3

Jackson: 10/4

Hillsdale: 7/1

Oakland: 6/0

Van Buren: 6/3