When you think of world class whitetails, states like Iowa, Illinois, Kansas and even places in Canada will probably come to mind before Minnesota. These states consistently produce trophy whitetail bucks in terms of antler scores. Minnesota produces some respectable antlers, but it's most impressive measure of whitetail bucks is probably weight.

Two Minnesota bucks are tied for the world record weight of a whitetailed deer. One of the bucks was shot in 1926 by Carl Lenander Jr., and the other was harvested by George Himango in 1981. Lenander killed his buck near Tofte, Minnesota while hunting with his dad. Himango shot his buck while hunting the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation with his brother and cousin. Both deer fielddressed at 402 lbs. with an estimated live weight of 511 lbs.

You may ask yourself, "Why did these deer get so big, and why don't we see deer this big today?" To answer these questions, let's look at the history of whitetalled deer in Minnesota.

To understand why Minnesota generally produces bigger deer than the rest of the country, let's look at Bergmann's Rule. Bergmann's Rule is an ecogeographic principle that states larger individuals of the same species are found in colder climates. So, whitetailed deer are a species distributed across North America. According to Bergmann's Rule, Minnesota should produce larger deer than Florida-which is true.

In the 1920s, Minnesota's deer herd was very low in numbers and was being diminished. Some areas were closed off as sanctuaries for the deer as insurance to prevent killing the entire population. There were much fewer numbers of hunters than there are today because of the difficulty of finding deer and the price of a license.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s the deer population in Minnesota was down {as was the hunter population). In 1971 the DNR actually closed the deer hunting season. By the late '80s, the population began to see slow, steady growth. A change in management practices was taking place and started to show results. By the '90s, the deer population had tripled from what it was in the '70s.

Today, the deer population hovers somewhere around 1,000,000. Minnesota hunters, numbering almost 500,000, harvest 150,000-250,000 deer annually. These numbers are much higher than earlier in our State's history.

Because of today's technology and modern herd management practices, we are able to harvest more deer at a faster rate than Minnesotans of the past. Because of this, deer typically don't live as long or have the opportunity to grow to their full potential as they could have in the years these two bucks were harvested. Today's herd "turnover" rate is much higher than it used to be.

Look at a place like Camp Ripley. We could call this military installation a type of sanctuary for deer. It is very large in size, and has limited access to hunters and the weapons used by hunters. Camp Ripley has gained a reputation for producing bucks with some of the biggest antlers shot in the state every fall. Have you ever stopped and looked at the weight of these trophies? They are consistently higher in weight than the rest of the state, often in the mid-250 pound range field-dressed. Harvesting a 200 pound buck anywhere in the state is something worth bragging about. A 200 pound buck in Camp Ripley, however, is seemingly a run-of-the-mill animal.

Granted, these deer would still have to gain another 150 pounds to come close to Lenander and Himango's record, but it shows that allowing deer to live longer, without a lot of hunting pressure, and access to good habitat, grows bigger deer. Who knows? Maybe in the near future, one of these freaks of a whitetail will show up again in one of todays "sanctuaries."

ELI PLOOF AND DR. WILLIAM FABER Natural Resources Program, Central Lakes College, Brainerd, MN

This article was from the Fall 2013 Issue of Whitetales. The top 10 heaviest bucks with proof are as follows:

#10/9 - Tie. The Jeanette Reim Buck and the Kelly Fausak Buck, both from Alberta, Canada weighing in at 400lbs live/320 dressed.

#8/7 - Tie.The Doug Willard Buck from Saskatchewan weighing in at 407lbs live/327 dressed. And the Josh Ray Buck from Ohio

#6 - The Stan Whitt Buck from Nebraska weighing in at 412lbs live/332lbs dressed.

#5 - The Dwayne Lallathin Buck taken in Saskatchewan weighing in at 435lbs live/340 dressed.

#4 - The Dean Coffman Buck from Iowa weighing in at 440lbs live/345 dressed

#3 - The Horace Hinkley Buck from Maine weighing in at 488lbs live/355 dressed.

#2 - The Carl Lenander Buck from Minnesota weighing in at 511lbs live/402 dressed.

#1 - The John Arnette Buck from Ontario weighing in at 540lbs live/431 dressed.