Ohioans

Come on now Ohioians, tell us your secrets on how to grow big bucks. 

But the doe have the bucks!!!! LOL

While I was being a smartass, The area of OH I hunt hammers the doe and it just seems there are more and bigger bucks each year, Im not a biologist, but from what Ive seen first hand, I dont know if it is even possible to shoot too many doe, The last 5 years of hunting this area Ive missed 1 and seen 2 other bucks that definitely would have went B&C typical . Oh Yea and the last 2 I saw were on a public hunting area

Here is a quote from Charles Alsheimer in his book- From Buttons to B+C----- As discussed in Chapter 5, it is no concidence that some of the biggest bucks come from regions with fertle soil. For example, the Midwest "Grain Belt" contains some of the most productive soil in North America. With this in mind it is easy to understand why the region has produced over 65% of Whitetailed bucks entered in the B+C record book.

Since I think you started the thread to stir the pot I thought I'd help. We both know you need both age and nutrition to produce big bucks. That being said, there have been a few shot in the wild over the years that were aged at 3-1/2 years which made B+C. It is also not uncommon for the pay to play farms that supplemental feed them to have some 3-1/2 B+C bucks available. Check out the Pay hunts on the net to see the photos. Ex- Hidden Valley Ranch shows  one. True B+C bucks at any age are rare in the wild but they do occur, even at 3-1/2.

If money is no object check out Midwestern Whitetails and see what you can get from  a three year old with the proper genetics and feed.

 Here is a nice N.E. Ohio deer a buddy got a few years ago. I had my pic. taken with his deer just to bust a few chops @ work for a while until the word leaked out.  Rick is also a charter capt.  for D&B Charters out of Geneva marina.

Sad thing is , vehicular traffic claims more of the big ones then the sportsman do. Part of my job is to pick em off the roads.  I got a buddy that is gonna be in the hospital /rehab. for a long time who wacked one on his bike  last week.
Thank God hes gonna make it. I've known other bikers where deer have taken their lives as well as their wives.



http://www.ohiogameandfish.com/hunting/bowhunting-hunting/oh_aa073903a/

You might want to read that article again. They are crediting the "reduction" of the doe harvest in Ohio  with the increase in more good bucks. That's just the opposite of what we are doing in Penna.

I was merely pointing out to Treefrog that the folks in the article were giving credit to the "reduction" in doe harvest in Ohio for their increase in more  bucks and good bucks. They were not in favor of killing a lot of doe as was misread in this thread.  As far as doe getting bred late, the doe fawns don't come into heat until December/January or so and since our emphasis as per Gary Alt is to kill the big doe and leave the fawns, this assures that there will be a larger percentage of late bred does. This has to result in a larger percentage of late fawns than before Antler Restriction. Just what we all agree we don't want to happen.

the real reason for our bucks getting so big........barry bond's big buck medicine.  "homers and racks are us".

I hunt Ohio a lot (public property primarily).  The differences that I see and the reasons I typically see bigger deer compared to PA are as follows.  A lot of Ohio was strip mined at one time.  The companies that did the strip mining replanted the lands once they were finished with them.  Many of the plants I find abundances of in Ohio on these properties, I do not find very often in PA and the deer absolutely gorge themselves.  This includes grasses up to nut and fruit bearing trees.  Many of the areas have not grown back to mature forests yet and enormous tracts of impeneterable underbrush are virually unhuntable by people.  These two factors allow the deer a unique combination of nutrition and ability to grow old.  When you combine this with a lack of hunter numbers, you have a combination for making giant whitetails.  I have only killed one buck in Ohio (135") but that is because we let anything smaller walk.  Every year I see one or two that will push the B&C books, but they seem to have a sixth sense to them when it comes to avoiding people.  That said, my niece shot the buck I intended to hunt last year (I set her on the stand) and it grossed 186".  Her boyfriend shot a 184" bruiser 5 years ago off of the same property.  I currently know where there is one that may break the 200" mark, but I have not figured out how to hunt him and certainly I have no idea how I would ever get him out if I did shoot him, due to the cover and rugged terrain. He may have to be one that waits until early November or even the gun season for me to chase him. I do believe that NCPA could grow deer of that caliber, but some major work needs to be done to restore the land and that would require cutting down some major mature forests to make way for new growth.