I recently shared deer camp in KY with a couple from Starkville. They showed me a lot of pics of deer they had killed and had on camera. Some GREAT deer in that area apparently.
Never seen dirt like this... when fire ants make mounds, the dirt is jet black they till up.
Lots of ag all around, the problem is their particular lease is grossly mismanaged. Cattle ground 50 years ago, allowed to go fallow. Lots of stands of 14in cedars. Other blocks of mature hardwoods. Only a small percentage of clear-cut hardwoods in 7 yo planted pines. About 15ac of the 1000 ac in plots....
The landowner doesn't care about timber value or wildlife values.. he owns a beer distributorship and makes millions off of it. The thousands of acres of land he owns in the area are just a second thought... so this particular property can crank out dozens of 130s, with the occasional 140, and rare 150s plus.
Turn me loose on this place with carte blanche land management, and 140s would be the norm for shooters. It's got the soil, age structure and genetics, but just doesn't have the nutrition at the level it takes to produce giants.
My buddy would rather come with me to my middle TN farms and hunt, as he usually sees bigger deer in TN than this property just west of Starkville.
But it's nice for both of us.. we hunt the 1st rut in TN together mid Nov; hunt 1st rut together mid Dec, then I come back to TN for 2nd rut week before Christmas, then we hunt in south MS new years for 1st rut locally. Makes a world of difference hunting bucks actively seeking does than wasting time hunting outside the rut. Just travel to where the rut is ongoing at the time!