Thank you all. Its all about genetics and it is weird. Where we hunt is kind of on a boundary line between Northern and Southern subspecies so body size is more related to northern whitetail and racks are heavily influenced by southern whitetail. So the 2.5 year old I shot in 2002 field dressed 195 lbs and gross scored 145". The further north you go the deer get huge, I've seen 300# whitetail on the hoof. My dad's '95 weighed 226lbs after hanging 7 days when he dropped it off at the butcher. That deer was a bruiser. My uncles buck dressed out at 195#'s. My cousins husband has a 242" (yes that is inches) monster hanging on the wall that he shot in I believe 2003 in Henry Co. Illinois which is about 3.5 hours north of where I gun hunt. That one made North American Whitetail Magazine as the largest buck shot in Il that year and was #4 all time for the state back then. Those deer rub telephone poles up there and that is no joke. Also if you look at the glacial map of Il, you will see a line around Decatur. The soil actually changes from brown to black and crop yields are way higher north of that line. I think there is some correlation there, to animal size and I think it has to do with mineral intake.
