Boone and Crockett Club's State and Provincial Big Game Records

Whether you’re looking for record-book whitetail deer or the biggest moose to come out of your state, look no further. Here, you can search the Boone and Crockett database for state records for big game from Alaska to Mexico.

Vermont State Big Game Records

In the far northwest corner of the state sits a hunter’s dream. It’s called Essex County. With roughly 6,000 residents, it’s the least populous county in both Vermont and New England. What it lacks in human residents it more than makes up for in record-book entries for Canada moose. A few whitetail deer entries round out the county. The runner-up for the county with the most entries is Orleans, which is just west of Essex. Orleans must have a robust black bear population if their entries are any indication. The state record was taken there in 2013.

West Virginia State Big Game Records

Hunting for English Sparrow, skunk, and pigeon is open year round in the Mountain State, but that doesn’t mean big game hunters should pack up their gear and go home. Deer hunting is robust with more than 100,000 deer being taken there in 2021 alone. That translates into about 30 percent of hunters filling their tags each year. For the big bone hunter, the past couple of decades have been pretty good. Black bear hunters have been spoiled as well. Numerous bruins have been added to the records in the past 15 years. Still no trophy category for skunks, though.

Tennessee State Big Game Records

Elvis Presley wasn’t a big game hunter, which is too bad. His Graceland estate sits in Shelby County, which according to the Boone and Crockett Club’s County Search Tool, holds a number of the state’s record-book whitetail deer entries. Montgomery County, though, is the big winner with the most book entries of the state’s counties. And the real wild card is Sumner County, home to an insane non-typical taken by Stephen Tucker in 2016. That buck scored 315-1/8 points, and it should stay in the top 10 of all-time for quite a while.

New Hampshire State Big Game Records

The Granite State is solid for whitetailsNew Hampshire offers quality whitetail deer and black bear hunting in a classic New England setting. The state's mix of hardwood forests and agricultural valle...

Louisiana State Big Game Records

The Pelican State offers swamp to pine huntingLouisiana offers unique whitetail hunting experiences from the bayous to the piney woods. The state's long seasons and liberal bag limits provide ample op...

Maryland State Big Game Records

The Old Line State draws the line on trophy bucksMaryland offers quality whitetail deer hunting despite its small size and dense population. The state's agricultural areas and managed forests produce ...

Mississippi State Big Game Records

Mississippi’s whitetail entries in the record book are average—except for one. There is one buck that stands alone. That buck was killed by Tony Fulton in 1995 and holds the state record for non-typicals. It also breaks into the top 10 of All-time. No other deer from the state comes close. This buck, though, is a bit of an outlier because it’s the only entry from Winston County. The vast majority of deer entries come from the state’s western half, along the border with Louisiana and Arkansas. There, counties like Coahoma, the state’s top trophy producer, wait for you to take advantage of its Southern charm.

North Dakota State Big Game Records

A quick look at the state records for North Dakota will have you scratching your head: bull elk just shy of 450 points, a pronghorn over 90, a typical elk over 400. There are also Canada moose (you read that correctly), bighorn sheep, mule deer (of course), cougar—you get the point. While hunting for most of these species is limited, once you actually draw (or buy) the tag, you hunt the animal of your dreams. Many of those top 10 entries are from the past few decades.

New York State Big Game Records

If you’re a big game hunter and live in New York, your big game hunting is going to be limited to whitetails and black bears. That’s not a bad thing. In the counties that border Pennsylvania and New Jersey, there are more woods than steel and concrete. And that’s where you’re going to find those big bruins. In 2017, one hunter killed the state record that landed in the top 10 of All-time at 22-15/16 points. This isn’t to say that New York doesn’t have great whitetail deer hunting opportunities, because they do. The bears are just bigger.

North Carolina State Big Game Records

Bears, bears, and bears. Based on the sheer number of entries in Big Game Records LIVE, North Carolina might just be the best state for a chance at a record-book black bear. And according to the County Search Tool, Hyde County is the hotspot with 58 entries since 1986. On the northeast coast of North Carolina, the Hyde County has few residents (less than 5,000) and looks like it’s mostly made up of water. But big black bears seem to love it here. Yes, there is whitetail hunting here, but you’re more likely to run into a big bear.