This tiny state and its liberal seasons make it a solid place to fill the freezer — It makes sense that the smallest state in the U.S. would have the fewest record-book entries at just four. And that’s okay. There are a lot of deer here. 

Saskatchewan's sprawling prairies: a hotspot for abundant and varied game hunting

Utah is home to the current World’s Record non-typical American elk and black bear. It’s great for mule deer, too. The problem is that everyone knows that. If you apply for a tag to hunt in a trophy unit there, buy a Powerball ticket at the same time—your odds of winning are likely the same. Fear not wishful hunter. There are “average Joe” hunts if you take the time to look. With varied…

Golf courses and white sand beaches abound.

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…

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…

Home to Mount Rushmore and the Badlands, South Dakota is also a great state in which to hunt bison, whitetail and mule deer, elk, and even pronghorn. Bison entries abound from Custer County in the southwest. The state’s largest bighorn killed in 2018 sits solidly in the top five of all time. Deer entries aren’t as common as they were decades ago, but elk are starting to make the book there.…

For such a massive state, Texas boasts very little public land. Hopefully you know a buddy with a big ranch. If not, plenty of guides and outfitters will be happy to lead you to find some decent whitetail bucks and some even better (scoring) pronghorn. There’s even an elk entry from 1934, but because they are not considered a game animal today, elk can’t be entered into the records. There’s…