by Daniel E. Schmidt, D&DH editor

Well, another Wisconsin bow opener is in the books, and the early reports indicate
it will be another banner season for trophy hunters. My friend Jim stopped by yesterday
with the rack from the buck he took on opening morning. Impressive to say the least.
This mainframe 10 had a few extra points and rough scores at just over 166. What an
incredible deer, and Jim’s biggest to date.

What’s even more impressive is that he shot this deer off of his 40-acre hunting parcel,
and it is the 2nd 160-class deer to have been taken off of this property in the last
3 years. The key is that Jim’s area of northeast Wisconsin is home to good genetics
and tremendous edge habitat. What works for his benefit is the area also has several
larger landowners that subscribe to percentage principle management (as described
by Charles Alsheimer in his recent D&DH articles). In a nutshell, the landowners target
the top 15 percent of the bucks on their properties, which — despite heavy hunting
pressure — has allowed many of these deer to reach the 4- and 5-year-old age classes.

The take-home message: You can kill big deer off of small properties if that land
is surrounded by the right mix of sanctuary, food and management criteria.

Thanks to Jim for sharing these photos with us. First one is from mid-August.

Learn hunting tactics for any plot of land using Charles Alsheimer’s Strategies
for Whitetails.