some of the counties where the deer herd dropped back in the late 90's have been producing bigger bucks due to less hunting pressure. bath and highland are 2 near me that have seen a increase in bigger bucks being takin,not as many but a few real nice deer. inhighland you can find srape and horn lines that go faor miles . i guess bucks are having to travel farther to breed does with the population being down. the odds of killing that buck are slim.
there are also lots of bucks near or better than these 3 being killed that never go to the big game show. for a hunter that lives on the south eastern shore in va this year would have to travel 3-4 hrs one way just to enter his deer in the contest . plus you have to leave them at the show the whole weekend,that means 2 days in a motel.
Awesome bucks for sure, but I'm not too sure there were "lots" of bucks killed like that in VA. After all, the buck that came in first place this year ranks #2 in the state all time....if there were a lot better, I'm sure we'd have heard about it.
