For the past decade, Iowa has been one of the top states in the nation for producing trophy whitetail bucks. Both the Boone and Crockett and Pope & Young record books are studded with entries from Iowa. Many hunters in Iowa, often with 130- to 150-class bucks already on their walls, now hunt selectively, searching only for monsters that would score in the 180- to 200-inch range.

But just because Iowa is consistently one of the nation's top five producers of trophy whitetail bucks doesn't mean that it's easy to tag one of those bruisers. In the most recent tally of bucks entered in the Iowa Department of Natural Resources' Trophy Buck Registry, 91 bucks killed by means of shotguns were entered during 2007. The total deer harvest -- does, button bucks and antlered bucks -- during the same shotgun hunting seasons was 91,174 deer. That means less than a tenth of a percent of the deer taken during those shotgun seasons -- or roughly one in 1,000 -- qualified and were entered in the Trophy Deer Registry.

It should be noted that the IDNR's Trophy Deer Registry is a voluntary registry and not an absolute listing of all trophy whitetails taken in Iowa. However, the registry's entries have paralleled for more than 50 years the actual county-by-county and annual statewide deer harvests and provide an informed view of the location and quantity of trophy bucks killed here.

TOP SPOTS FOR TROPHIES
In order for a buck to qualify for the Iowa Trophy Deer Registry, it must score at least 150 typical points or 170 non-typical points if killed by shotgun or muzzleloader, and at least 135 typical points or 155 non-typical points if taken by a bow.

A look at the top trophy-producing counties in the IDNR's Trophy Deer Registry during the 2006-07 Iowa deer hunting seasons -- the most recent complete tally of entries -- shows that Allamakee County in far northeast Iowa is still our champion trophy producer. Hunters have registered 436 bucks from the rugged hills of Allamakee County since the registry was created in 1954.

Second place in the registry went to Marion County in south-central Iowa, with 310 entries since 1954. Clayton County, again in far northeast Iowa, claimed third place with 297 trophy entries, while Warren County in south-central Iowa took fourth place with 286 entries.

The rest of the top 25 trophy-producing counties are scattered across the eastern and southern thirds of Iowa, with a smattering of counties from west-central and far western Iowa that hint of the trophy-potential of those regions. Every county in Iowa has produced whitetail bucks eligible for entry in the trophy registry, though some have managed only single-digit entries. Last place in the registry goes to flat, heavily farmed Pocahontas County in northwest Iowa, where hunters have registered only two trophy bucks since 1954.