KANSAS
At the end of a conversation with Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks' big-game biologist Lloyd Fox, you can't help but reach the conclusion that the Sunflower State has better trophy-buck dynamics than any other Great Plains state -- and, possibly, more than the other three combined. But that's not necessarily a good thing.

"With the advent of non-resident hunting," Fox explained, "deer hunting became an important economic factor for many landowners in Kansas. It used to be that a guy would be hunting some of the best big-buck acreage around because the landowner was his uncle … or his best friend's uncle. Now that uncle won't let you on the property because he's selling that access to hunters who are willing to pay for the chance to hunt a trophy Kansas buck. In terms of overall numbers or distribution, there hasn't been any impact on our trophy bucks as a result of non-residents coming in. From the standpoint of access, however, there has been some impact."

That impact concerns Fox. There are some big chunks of Kansas land where access has been cut way back because of the landowners' desires to make sure paying hunters have a chance at the kind of buck they're looking for. Overall harvest has been reduced as a result, and deer numbers simply have to go up because of it.

"We have some landowners who are making decisions that could lead to overpopulation," Fox said. "And no matter where you live, you have a number of folks who are non-hunters who get concerned with highway safety and other issues when deer numbers start to grow. They get concerned, and they get vocal about it."

As a hunter, you should be concerned, too -- simply because you can't dispute the science of out-of-whack populations. Even in a food factory like Kansas, more deer will mean less for each of them to eat, and that could impact the overall quality of the bucks in a given area.

On the other hand, Kansas' deer seem to be doing quite well. "Any unit in the state can and will produce trophy-quality whitetails," Fox offered. "I remember one year when I told a writer that Deer Management Unit 16 probably had the lowest potential in the state to produce a nice buck at that time. Later than fall" -- here he paused to laugh -- "a woman hunter killed a non-typical that scored 257 and change."

Fox included DMU 16 as one of his picks for the 2005 season, along with DMUs 14, 10 and 8. Just remember, however, every DMU in the state really can produce a trophy whitetail.

When it comes to Kansas mule deer, Fox narrows the field quickly. "Units 2 and 17 tend to have big mule deer year in and year out," he said. "There are always some dandies in Unit 2."

NEBRASKA
Based on information from Nebraska biologist Kit Hams, it seems as thought the Sandhills and Pine Ridge management units will be the overall best bets this season for trophy deer. Hams included both in his picks for whitetails and for mulies.

The Cornhusker State's whitetail population is still recovering from a natural disaster of sorts -- epizootic hemorrhagic disease. "We lost a bunch of deer to EHD throughout central Nebraska a few years ago," Hams explained.