Are the Biggest Typical Whitetails History?

It isn't the only thing that matters to hunters. But a lot of hunters dream of killing big deer. It should matter less than the true reason for hunting, which is for food. But me and just about every other hunter would be lying if they said they wouldn't enjoy killing a big buck. Even meat hunters that I know show off the big ones they bring home.

It's mystical, legendary whitetails like the Milo Hanson buck that keep people awake at night. Hanson took the 213 5/8-inch giant in Biggar, Saskatchewan during the 1993 season. Talk about a giant buck. It's the icon of big deer and the greatest of the typicals.

But are the really big, elite typicals a thing of the past?

And I'm not talking about your 160- to 170-inch deer. I'm talking about the typicals that are 190-plus. Are they trending downward? The Boone & Crockett record books certainly suggest it.

Hunters tagged 23 typicals that made the top 100 typical list between 2000 and 2009. Only four have entered the top 100 since 2010. As for non-typicals, hunters bagged 24 bucks between 2000 and 2009 large enough to make the top 100. And 14 non-typicals have been entered since 2010 making the top 100. The non-typical entries are still following historical trends. The number of large typical entries are well below average.

Now, let's look at this with a wider scope. Forget the top 100. Since 2010, a total of 1,763 typicals have been entered and 1,058 non-typicals have been entered. That's on par. But the vast majority of these typical entries are bucks in the 160s and 170s. Grant it, those are big typicals. But they aren't the top-end typicals in that 180- to 190-inch range that we're covering in this post. Leading one to think that really big typicals are on a downtrend.

The most recent deer added to the all-time top 50 typical list was Kevin S. Petrzilka's buck from 2010. It's the only post-2010 entry to make that list. The buck was taken in Nebraska and scored 198 2/8.

The most recent buck to make the top 25 typical list was J. Tarala and M. Berezowski's buck from 2006. That buck was taken in Saskatchewan and scored 200 1/8.

So are the biggest of the biggest typicals truly history? Likely not. What I suspect we're seeing in the recent data is simply a valley following a peak in the early 2000s. But one thing is for sure. Only time and data will tell.

Are you a trophy hunter? A meat hunter? Maybe a hybrid of the two? That's where I fall. And that's why this data intrigues me. Comment below if it intrigues you, too.