Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Where are all the corn belt bucks?

There have been quite a few great bucks posted around here lately. We’ve seen several from Kansas, Texas, and northern states, but it doesn’t seem like I’ve seen many coming from Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, or Nebraska. So where are all the corn belt giants??

My neighbor shot a huge deer in NE. I'll try and get a pic if he's ok with it.

Depending on location. Places where we normally either get nice bucks or see them, none were there. Some other areas seemed to do well.
Just a weird year around here.

the corn belt is a few hunnerd miles east of here..... not a stalk to be seen hereabouts.

There are some aspect of states’ hunting seasons that increase the chances a big buck. For example, NE’s rifle season usually hits the rut head on while Iowa’s gun seasons are post-rut and post post-rut.

There are other aspects of course but this is a very significant one.

Eastern Iowa got hit hard with EHD last year. Lots of bigger bucks found dead in the 3 county’s we hunt. Only saw or heard of 4-5 mature deer being shot, biggest was a 186” by a bow hunter. During gun season deer were hard to come by. Lots of spikes and forks saw but nothing in way of anything mature. DNR says they are trying to reduce #s with the EHD to get it under control and then could see a possible return to “buck” only as it was back in 70s.

I honestly think with all the doe/antlerless tags out there that the heard #s are down. Where we used to see 100+ deer feeding in evenings now you see 4-5.

Full3r,
Gosh, I'd heard things had taken a step back but didn't know it was that dire. That really sucks.

The state no-one mentions is the sleeper with the 160+ heads taken every year. Neighbor shot a 180ish only about 300 yards from where I type this and that is no where near the biggest taken in the area.

The EHD outbreak in 2012-13 is still having ramifications. The corn belt states lost a lot of deer . A rise in crop prices means a significant amount of land that was in CRP is now being cleared and farmed wich reduces cover and hurts fawn recruitment. Hunting pressure on the antlerless segment of the herd has been reduced but the bucks have been hunted hard which hurts the age structure. Illinois, Missouri , Iowa and northeast Kansas are shells of what they were in the mid 2000s.

SKane,
I wouldn’t say that it sucks. It’s just a different dynamic that the golden years of big bucks everywhere. We seeing a few young bucks and fair amount of does. Just takes time to recover. Being an Iowa resident I’m still guaranteed 2 either sex deer tags bc s year, as long as one is a bow kill. The pheasant population is best that it has been in my lifetime. Guys can still go out of state and chase big deer.

At end of day I grew up passing 140”-150” deer waiting for big deer to walk by. Now we are seeing guys shooting more of them. But I gave friends down south that will never see anything bigger than an 80”basket rack deer on the public ground there. Lots of the magazines and tv shows made it more popular to kill big deer. It just the way stuff goes. A place has a few big deer and big money comes in and leases ground hoping to get the fame.

Full3r,

I hear ya. I've seen a similar dynamic change in the 20+ years I've been hunting in KS.

A friend and sometime contributor here shot a whopper of a buck in IA this year. He hasn't posted it so I'll respect his privacy until then.

SKane,
What part of Kansas? Have a buddy that lives in hill city. Went out last year to see them one saw several nice deer. He seems to have the same attitude that the states are more concerned with bringing in money with rag sales than managing the herds

They were more concentrated this year where we were. All the corn was combined and it was warm for opener. A couple nephews filled but nothing spectacular. There was a nice 6X6 outside the kitchen window Christmas morning.

Wisconsin corn crib.

*grins*

The last number of years it's been in the south central region but mostly SE prior to that.

I think part of the onus is on us non-resident hunters too. While I don't begrudge anyone with a buck tag in their pocket to fill it any way they wish - the main reason most are drawn to the state is the possibility of putting a tag on a true trophy. Unfortunately, when they don't see that, many are compelled to go home with a much lesser buck (rather than simply taking a doe home) and that continued, annual cycle has put a hurt on trophy potential for all.

I've actually seen quite a few really big deer this year. Most of them are pretty close to several towns I drive through on my way to work.

The two above were from first season shotgun (drive) where I hunt at the end of a drive and late muzzleloader stand where I hunt (I don't have a buck tag for that one) and the kid was sure happy!