Ohio’s trophy bucks continued to make the headlines last season, grabbing the attention of deer hunters from across the nation.

“My best estimate is the number of Buckeye Big Buck Club entries from 2009 will be slightly higher and the number of giants (200+ inches) may set an all time record” said Mike Rex, secretary of the Buckeye Big Buck Club. “It was a good year for big bucks in Ohio.”

A rundown of Ohio’s top whitetails from the ’09 season would include Brian Stephens’ 232-5/8, 18-point non-typical from Highland County that briefly held the state’s muzzleloading record only to be unseated by another Highland County buck taken 16 years earlier that was never officially entered into the record books (see July issue NA Whitetail).

In Ross County, Jason McClintic arrowed one of the top P&Y archery kills taken in the U.S. when he downed a 240-0/8, massive 24-point non-typical in late November (see September issue Ohio G&F and NA Whitetail).

One of the state’s top typicals was taken by Todd Bailey, a 14 pointer scoring 186-6/8, from Clark County (see July issue Ohio G&F). Ironically, though, the largest typical buck taken in the U.S. last season was a 16 pointer that scored 197-2/8 and was poached in Adams County and checked in as a Kentucky deer (see In The Field this issue).

Jeff McCulley took a 24-point non-typical with a crossbow in January from Summit County that scored an incredible 257-4/8, making it the state’s top deer from last season (see next month’s issue of this magazine for the complete story).

It goes to show that Ohio’s top tier trophy whitetails literally dot the state map, and a look at the accompanying list of Buckeye Big Buck Club entries (typical-140 inches, non-typical-160 inches) offers a glimpse at Ohio’s top counties.

The evidence is clear that the Buckeye State is perhaps king of the hill when it comes to trophy bucks but agricultural practices in a given area, even in Ohio, influence the quality of bucks the area produces.

“You certainly can’t deny the connection,” said Mike Tonkovich, head deer biologist for the Ohio Division of Wildlife. “Corn provides lots of carbohydrates and energy and beans provide lots of protein during the summer.”

The 2009 summer season brought with it lots of rain, resulting in a bumper crop of beans, hay, clover and woodland forage.

Brian Stephens poses with his magnificent 232 5/8 non-typical, taken last year in Highland County. Photo by Tom Cross.

“The rainfall (last year) had far more impact statewide than what was planted in the fields because it affected deer that don’t have access to crops,” said Tonkovich. “The amount of green vegetation available throughout late summer when things are normally dried up was certainly not an issue last summer. If anything the amount of rainfall has a tremendous impact on antler development in that particular growing season. So I would say if anything the rain fall was a big contributor in 2009.”

When picking a top spot for trophy whitetails, Tonkovich said hunters could try, “Just about anywhere in the state.

“That’s what makes Ohio unique — you never know,” said biologist Tonkovich.

“Summit, Adams and Highland County, you just never know where they’re going to pop up. What’s interesting, while we say anywhere, we’re not seeing that historically famous area in east central Ohio — the Guernsey, Muskingum, Licking counties that everybody used to flock to — you’re not seeing a lot of big bucks out of there anymore. [Instead] you’re seeing them out of the southwest part of the state. Then you get to the agricultural belt of northwest Ohio and the deer there are harvested too early. If you gave the bucks another year or two to survive it would be on fire. But because those bucks are so vulnerable to hunting pressure most of those bucks are harvested at two-and-a half years of age. We see that in the data from the 7,000 deer we aged last year. When you start looking at the age of deer harvested, the youngest bucks are from northwest Ohio.”

And age, is just as important a factor as food when it comes to producing big bucks: a buck has to reach 3 1/2 to 5 1/2 years of age to achieve maximum antler growth.

“Deer are going to start declining in antler quality at about 7 1/2 years of age, so at 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 years you’re looking at a trophy. That’s where they need to get to in order to maximize their potential,” said Tonkovich. “If you look at the age structure it used to be 2 1/2-year-old bucks made up 25 percent of the buck harvest; nowadays it’s 35 percent, so there’s no question that a larger percentage of deer are making it to the older age class, but still its only five to six percent of the total buck harvest falls into that trophy category.”

Tonkovich points out that it’s apparent from the data that more and more hunters are passing on smaller bucks.

“You can look at the numbers and that tells the whole story: hunters are passing on smaller bucks,” said Tonkovich.

As recently as 1995, yearlings represented 65 percent of the bucks harvested by hunters. Today only 45 to 50 percent of the bucks are yearlings, so hunters are taking small bucks at a lower rate than they did 15 years ago. Tonkovich suggests that part of the reason for this is that as more and more hunters become interested in killing big deer as opposed to any deer, they are passing up younger bucks. Another factor may be that hunters now have liberal antlerless harvest opportunities, so they don’t have to shoot a yearling buck to put something in the freezer.