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If there is such a thing as a deer boom, Kansas is going through it right now. It's something that has been steadily growing for years, thanks to the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks' management program. In particular, the KDWP's tight controls on the number of buck permits issued has assured a healthy proportion of older bucks.
Deer populations are up statewide, and significantly enough that the department, in an effort to stabilize the population, is boosting the number of hunting permits available this year. All in all, it points to a promising year for deer hunters.
Not that it was a bad year. After all, the state record book had to be revised to accommodate some huge deer whose monster racks muscled their way to the top of the charts.
The typical mule deer Kansas record number 2 buck was bagged last year in Graham County by archer John Hardman and scored 187 7/8.
There were also three new entries in the firearm category, when Brett Yelton dropped a 183 1/8 typical mulie in Graham County to claim the number 12 spot in the top 20.
"Deer hunting has been looking up for some time," observed Lloyd Fox, the departments research and surveys supervisor, who reports that last year, 40 per cent or more of the antlered deer harvested were 2 1/2 years old or older. Bucks have enough maturity at 2 1/2 years to start becoming mighty respectable specimens.
In the following chart please
note that 2 out of 4 of the record mule deer were taken from Graham
County
Kansas!
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Information