Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting I want to shoot a big bodied deer

Alberta

Sask has some bruisers too!

Canada for sure. If you're wanting to stay in the states---the upper midwest, corn fed deer get pretty big, as do those in Maine.

If you're not stuck on a whitetail, mule deer average quite a bit bigger though they both get big in the northern states and Canada.

Body size don’t really do anything for me I prefer bigger racks given the chance.

I prefer body weight to antlers.

I prefer both.

I’ve killed some hammers in montucky too....

Nice muley Jud. Where'd the whitey come from? He looks very good too.

Johnny, whitetail was killed up two hills alberta 2 years ago. Headed back this year with a muley and whitetail tag in pocket. Can't wait, alberta truly is the land of giants.

MIdwest has plenty of toads. Northern Missouri, say from I-70 up, Illinois, Iowa, anywhere from there north and there are some real big bodied boomers out there. I have a good friend who hunts land in one of Missouri's northern most counties that borders IA and his son shot a nice 10 pointer that field dressed 235 pounds which would have put it close to 300 on the hoof. Wife's family has a farm in Jersey county Illinois (borders the Mississippi river north of St. L), and BIL shot a 290 pound buck with a bow (actually on public land just a few miles from their farm). Like many have already said, they grow bigger the further north you go. For sure it's true in MO. Illinois seems to have big deer state-wide.

Moose is "deer", right?
They are...large.

I hunted northern MN in the 80s, about half way between Chisholm and International Falls...St Louis County.

Biggest Deer I took up there was in 1984... was chased out of a swamp on a deer drive, with a bunch of
others.... temp was unusually cold, even by standards up there... at 30 below...

Taken with a 444 Marlin....at about 100 yds..

field cleaned at 265... DNR figured it was 345 to 350 on the hoof...

Record whitetail was taken in Stearns County MN, north of St Cloud, 1926..
with a lever action Winchester...

At a reasonable price.....Northern Maine, but also generally fewer deer the further north you go.

Manitoba.
Sandy River Outfitters.
First class operation . I've been there several times . The hunting isn't easy but the deer are pretty big . Several taken every year in the 250 to 300 pound weight range.
Outfitters name is Harry Walker .
Good Luck,
Soup

Go north young man.

Montana, Maine, Canada or my favorite N Idaho where I killed a buck well in excess of 300lbs dressed. Have pictures in the computer that I posted before working on getting them out of photo bucket to re post.

Growing up in Northern Vermont my father killed several big bodied deer the were around 230-245. Vermont used to require deer be checked in and weighed, biggest one I ever killed there was 175.


Lefty C

In the Midwest I would say Illinois first and Minnesota second. Its not that Wisconsin doesn't have some nice ones, its that we get to gun hunt them post rut and the bucks have run lots of their body weight off by then. My 210 dressed biggest would have been 230 two weeks earlier. They need the genealogy which you get in the north, you need milder winters which you get in the southern Midwest, you need age which you get from lightly hunted private or huge blocks of inaccessible land and you need a great food source which you get from the crop land areas. Reading lots of the Larry Benoit tracking books, they got nice mid 200's in Maine and Vermont early on though nothing great antler wise, but then they relocated their hunting to Canada which probably tells you something.

Head to Lambeau Field!

Ironically, the biggest bodied whitetail I've shot was killed in Florida. Guess he didn't read the rules on going north.

Seafire, I to killed one of the biggest deer east of Or and south of Blackduck Lake.

This one is from SE of Superior, WI

https://imageshack.com/a/img923/4566/Dhxeai.jpg