There is no doubt that if you are an avid whitetail hunter like myself you have heard of Pike County Illinois.  I've been there many times, in fact our main office is located in Pittsfield Illinois right in Pike County.  While there for meetings and training we always stay at Hadley Creek Outfitters north camp in southern Adams County Illinois.  Pike County and Adams County are two of the most well known whitetail hunting counties in the United States.  The terrain there is as flat as can be coming off of the Mississippi River valley and eventually grows into rising timbered ridge lines with long draws mixed with agricultural fields making some great habitat.  The rough and rugged terrain of Pike and Adams Counties along with fertile river valley soils makes a great place for bucks to get proper nutrition and provides them with the security needed to grow big.  All of these are great things to consider when evaluating a hunting land purchase but maybe you don't know that Pike and Adams have an Iowa equivelent.

Now that I've told you all about Pike and Adams Counties lets take a look at a few statistics.  Joel Helmer wrote a Geographical Analysis of Boone and Crockett Whitetail harvests in the United States.  Joel used a computer program to enter all of the B&C records to find a visual representation along with some hard facts about where the most trophies are coming from.  If you click on the link above you can read his report but I'll quickly summarize what you will find in that report.  When the numbers were entered Iowa was #1 in B&C entries of all time but I think the most impressive part of his report was in the break down by counties.  There are only two Iowa counties in the top 10 counties across the United States and they were Allamakee County in Northeast Iowa and Monona County in west central Iowa.  In fact both Iowa counties in the top 10 of all time were tied for 4th place with Adams County Illinois.  Pike County Illinois was #3 on the list of all time B&C entries.  Depending on which time period you look at on Helmers report Pike County Illinois and Monona County Iowa are only separated by 1-2 entries for that time period. 

In fact Monona County Iowa also has a neighboring county or its equivalent of Adams County which is Harrison County Iowa.  Harrison and Monona Counties in Iowa are the equivelent of Pike and Adams in Illinois.

If I was to give you a description of Monona and Harrison in Iowa like I did Pike and Adams in Illinois above I could copy and paste it here but I'll save you the trouble.  Instead I'll tell you the differences in the two areas.  In Pike County Illinois you will find rock bottom creeks and in Monona County Iowa you will find dirt and sand bottom creeks.  In Monona and Harrison Iowa you will find Loess soil towering nearly 300 feet above the face while in Pike and Adams you'll find more limestone bluffs.  In Monona and Harrison Counties you'll find a much more rugged terrain that provides an even greater degree of security for whitetail deer.  In the western Iowa counties instead of the Mississippi River valley you'll find the Missouri River Valley.

To illustrate the very similar nature of Monona and Harrison to Pike and Adams I've put together a few terrain maps to show you how similar they are.

ILLINOIS

ABOVE is a terrain map from Pike and Adams County Illinois.  You can see to the left (west) the flat Mississippi River Valley and then as you move to the east the land abruptly changes to a rough terrain with river valleys and the work of many years of erosion down those valley's creating many fingers that if you looked at an aerial photograph are heavily timbered. 

BELOW is the equivalent in Monona and Harrison County Iowa.  Again to the left or west you see the flats of the Missouri River Valley and as you make your way east across the graphic you notice they rise into steep ridge tops that have been weathered by erosion over thousands of years creating the same timbered ridges and valley's as you see in Pike and Adams County Illinois.   This rough terrain stretches from northern Iowa all the way into Missouri along the western edge of Iowa. 

IOWA

West Central Iowa has some of the best whitetail habitat on the face of the earth hands down and its a huge secret that's likely to stay that way for some time.  Despite the heavy horned deer here in the Loess Hills it doesn't have the reputation or fanfare other location get.  What does that mean to the recreational land buyer?  It means there is somewhere else you can buy Pike County quality land with Pike County quality deer at a smaller price tag and certainly less crowded gravel roads.  Thats enough to set any whitetail hunters pulse racing right? 

Did you notice there was not one southern Iowa county in the top 10 counties of all time?  I spend my days stomping around the Loess Hills in Western Iowa hunting and marketing hunting properties in the Loess Hills which gives me the chance to put my feet on literally hundreds of farms and I know the deer that are out here. 

In fairness I have to mention other counties in west central Iowa that border Harrison and Monona because as you know county lines were not drawn along the lines of whitetail habitat when they were drawn.  On thing you will notice about west central Iowa is that when you draw a line about the hot spot Monona County is the county that holds the larger piece of it.  Woodbury, Ida, Crawford and Shelby also produce B&C entries as well, they just hold a smaller piece of the pie when you look at it.

Finally I will leave you with this excerpt from and Iowa Department of Natural Resources brochure called White-tailed Deerthat I was reading the other day.  This excerpt will give you an idea of the deer roaming the Loess Hills in Western Iowa.  "Fawns weigh from four to seven pounds at birth and will gain 80 to 100 pounds in their first six months of life. Adult males reach an average weight of around 240 to 265 pounds at about four and one- half years of age while adult females average 140 to 160 pounds. The largest deer ever reported in Iowa was a 440-pound buck taken in Monona County during the 1962-hunting season."

Jason Smith, Land Specialist

712-646-2061

Whitetail Trophy Properties