If you want to kill a whitetail this fall, knowing where to go is key. And if you know where the deer are, your chances of killing a deer -- any deer -- are greatly increased.

White-tailed deer hunting opportunities are plentiful throughout the Magnolia State, so your odds of bringing home the venison are excellent, particularly if you spend time in one of the counties or on a tract of public land whose deer densities are high.

That in mind, Mississippi Game & Fish went to two sources to find out where hunters have a good shot at bagging a whitetail. First, we talked with Chad Dacus, deer program coordinator for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, to get his statewide perspective. Then we went to the most recent report from the MDWFP's deer program for hard numbers on where hunters have consistently taken deer in recent times.

STATEWIDE
Statewide, the deer herd is clearly in excellent shape. "We look really good for this fall," Chad Dacus said. "Last year we had a record acorn crop in Mississippi, and there were still acorns on the ground long after deer season was over. So food quality and quantity statewide was really good."

The one exception Dacus pointed to was extreme northeast Mississippi. In April, a late freeze there damaged a lot of the acorns.

"That's the one spot where the acorn crop didn't carry on into the year," the coordinator said. "The rest of the state? Everything looks good.

"It's going to be interesting to see how the flooding in the Mississippi River, especially inside the levees in the south Mississippi Delta, will affect fawn recruitment for this year."

The water there did not begin to recede until late May, and then the Midwest was buffeted with new rounds of flooding in June. "Because of the flooding there may be some fawn recruitment issues in some parts of the state, particularly in the south Delta region," Dacus warned. "Any of the deer that were there before the flood will return to areas where they were previously."

Another factor was summer browse production in the area. In areas where the water remained, the amount of available food likely will be lower this year than it has been in the past.

"I don't expect there to be much effect that we will notice this year, " Dacus said with regard to deer numbers, "but we could notice it in future generations because of a possible reduced fawn crop. The one place I think we're going to see a little reduction in antler production is in the 1 1/2-year-old age-class, just because those deer were 8 or 9 months old when they went through this stress. They could show some lack of antler production this year, but I don't expect to see any decline in the older age-class animals this year."

Based on that outlook, many sites should prove good for hunting. "There are a number of places that have traditionally been good producers," Dacus said. "One is the south Mississippi Delta. The area around the Big Black River bottom is another one. This area extends through seven counties, and I'd put that area on a per-acre basis up against any place in the nation -- it's that good."

Another region Dacus suggested is the Noxubee County area. "Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge is there," he noted. "Around that area you have not only Noxubee NWR, but also John W. Starr WMA and Choctaw WMA and the Tombigbee National Forest. There's a tremendous amount of public land available to hunt in that part of the state that traditionally has had some fairly exceptional deer."