Tn...A Trophy Destination State?

[Land Between the Lakes]

I've lived and hunted in different regions of America. Most so called 'Trophy States" are not nearly as good as the media would have you believe. In the top rated states there are still tons of farms and properties that are not good at all. I would say at least 95% of hunters in the Midwest have never taken a buck that net scores over 160 inches, if they have they have probably only taken 1 or 2 that large. This is reality for most hunters, even in the Midwest.

The truth is parts of Tennessee actually have great deer hunting, and a lot of large bucks. There are a lot of farms and properties in TN much better than a lot of farms and properties in the Midwest. I know because I have lived and hunted in both areas of the country.

Tennessee has a higher overall deer population than most Midwest states. TN also has a good population of quality 120 to 135 inch bucks, which are quality bucks for most people. Contrary to what the media wants you to think, a 135 inch buck is still considered a quality buck to most hunters in the Midwest. And thankfully there are probably thousands of bucks in that size range roaming around TN.

 

[Land Between the Lakes]

The Lease Flippers is the one thing I have seen over the last 10 years I see driving KY leases up there was a group of about 5 guys not actually working together mind you but they controlled a large amount of Western KY and pushed them online, TV and print

KY became a victim of their own success. What really killed them was the year they led the nation in B&C bucks. Then every form of hunting media began touting the "Hidden Gem" of KY trophy hunting. That kind of coverage caused every trophy hunter and wannabe trophy hunter to stampede to the region. Everyone wants to be part of the "hot new place." Back in the 70s and 80s I remember seeing this happen over and over again with the "hot new lake" in bass fishing. Over the last 20 years, the same has been true of hot new trophy buck area.

The media really fueled the notion that KY was full of giant bucks. What's funny about that is like every state, KY has thousands and thousands of farms and properties that are over hunted, mismanaged etc. In other words, there are good places to hunt, and there are bad places to hunt in KY like any other state.

As a result of the media campaign to promote KY trophy hunting, many hunters, especially nonresidents, started having extremely non-realistic expectations about KY deer hunting. Many acted as though there was a 150 inch buck hiding behind every tree in KY. This notion is completely false and ridiculous. I've hunted in Kentucky for many years, and the overwhelming vast majority of hunters do NOT take big bucks regularly contrary to what the media wants people to believe. In fact, parts of Kentucky actually have some of the worst deer hunting in the United States. A lot of the mountainous big forested regions of Kentucky have some of the lowest deer densities in the United States.


Another issue with KY is it offers an early September start date to archery season. This brings in tons of people from across the world who want a chance at a velvet buck. Kentucky is not what it used to be. Today, KY probably has more hunting pressure than ever before, and finding good land is almost impossible.

 

[fairchaser]

I've been going to Iowa for 10 years now bow hunting and muzzle loader. This is a so called trophy state. When we started the NR tags were plentiful and were about $100; now you might wait several years to get drawn for a bow tag in certain zones and the tag is $567. I hunt in zone 2 because that's where we have property to hunt. It's not a great zone because it's open country. Tags are a little easier to get. But, you can see the deer there after the crops are out. Over the years we may have seen 3 or 4 in the 150 class and they are rare. Since party hunting is legal the shotgunners tend to get most of the good bucks and every few years the winter take the rest. We've killed a few decent bucks but nothing over 120. Surprising huh? All I'm saying is that it's not all like Lee and Tiffany's place. True trophy bucks are still very rare, no matter where you go. There has to be more than big bucks to make a trophy state. Iowa has pheasants, limited gun seasons (5 days) twice a year after the rut, unpressured deer and big bodied deer, open country, at least where we hunt. Overall, it's a unique hunting experience. We really don't expect to kill anything any bigger than we could kill here.

 

[WTM]

i dont about the tropy deer part because i dont know what the OP is calling a trophy deer but if you pick up a copy of the Tennesse Sportsmag mag every year they usually have some pretty good deer killed by Tennessee hunters. here is just one of them:

http://www.gameandfishmag.com/hunting/h ... aa094902a/

there were several others and one was killed by a guy i went to tech school with that killed his on Reelfoot. there has been a lot of what i called big deer killed in Tennessee over the last 20 years and several that where killed in the 80's and early 90's too. if we didnt have good deer here then magazines wouldnt write about it, albeit most come from region 1 and parts of region 2 which are heavy ag regions:

http://www.gameandfishmag.com/hunting/b ... tennessee/

we have some good public land with good deer but you have to get off the roads, away from the lazy hunters and find them. here is an example a guy i work with moved here a couple of years ago and was having a hard time finding a place to hunt better deer. he had already killed a few doe and a 2.5 yr old 8 point(which i told him he should have passed on and he agreed, but it is what it is), and this guy bowhunted like i used to: down and dirty walk 2 miles thru the muck and thickets if you have to and since he hunted like that i showed him some public land that very few know about or even hunt. we pulled up the maps and showed him a couple of places and noticed that there was one place by his house in Henry county. long story short, he hunted a deer 2 weeks and at the end of it he hauled out right at 200lb 11 point that grossed in the 140 ish. might i add he dragged out his first P&Y buck over 2 miles with a deer cart which he trashed by the time he got the deer out.

 

[BSK]

WTM,

I don't think anyone is saying TN can't grow an occasional great buck. It can and it has. The discussion is more about how common high-scoring bucks are in the state. TN can produce a fairly good number of pucks pushing the 150 mark, but nowhere near as many as some of the Midwestern states. In addition, bucks netting 170 in TN are relatively rare, as in just a couple killed each year, while some of the Midwestern states produce a couple dozen each year. And those 170+ net TN bucks usually just make it in, scoring 170-175, hile some of the Midwestern bucks are scoring 180s and 190s typical. TN very rarely produces a really monstrous typical buck.

Again, TN can and does produce some top-end bucks from time to time. However, the state is never going to produce the shear number of top-end bucks some of the Midwestern states do, and there's nothing we can do about that.

 

[BSK]

Land Between the Lakes and fairchaser,

Thank you so much for interjecting some reality into the discussion about the trophy states. Not all of those trophy states is good deer hunting nor has that much trophy potential. In each state, top trophy potential is still a localized condition that exists primarily in pockets. KY is the same way. I grew up hunting there and got to hunt some of the trophy areas and some of the non-trophy areas. Those non-trophy areas 30 years ago are still non-trophy areas, and I have more potential to kill a top-end buck from some parts of TN than those non-trophy areas of KY.

However, that's not to say KY doesn't have advantages over TN; it certain does. KY has far more trophy area than TN has. In KY's trophy areas, the top-end potential score-wise is greater than in TN. On average, bucks from the better areas of KY average around 10 to 15 inches higher than same age bucks in most of TN. That doesn't sound like a lot but it is. It's the difference between much of TN where mature (4 1/2+) bucks average around 120-125 gross compared to mature bucks in the better parts of KY averaging around 135. There's a big difference visually between a 120 gross buck and a 135 gross buck.

 

[landman]

Here's one of TN's Top Trophy Hunters from the past

 

[BULL MOOSE]

You just never know.... Both of these bucks came from Madison County during past 3 years.

 

[Headhunter]

What about Rockvale BSK? What do you think of the soil and genetics in the rock and cedar tree infested part of middle tennessee? Lots of good soil? Top end deer yearly will be 100 or so inches?