Back in April, the area experienced two extremely late freezes on consecutive nights. In some locations, temperatures plummeted to as low as 24 degrees, browning out all the lush new vegetation.

"It was like we were experiencing a second fall," said Jerry Hazlewood, a MDWFP wildlife biologist who lives in the area. "Everything north of U.S. Highway 82 looked like it had been sprayed with a burn-down herbicide. I am afraid we lost our acorn and soft-mast production for the year."

If that wasn't enough bad news for the region's deer hunters, those damaging late freezes were followed by a period of severe drought. This combination of events will impact the trophy-buck potential in north Mississippi for the next couple of years.

Less browse available during the antler-development months means poorer quality of antler production. Even though a failed acorn crop results in more bucks visiting winter food plots, those bucks most likely will be sporting headgear that's smaller than normal.

Finally, let's look at the part of the state that should produce most of the record-book bucks this year. The lower Delta that includes all of southwest Mississippi, along with a few counties in the central part of the state, is poised to yield the region's traditional harvest of big bucks.

This region not only escaped the damaging freezes that north Mississippi experienced, but it also received enough rainfall to keep it out of a severe drought situation. With an abundance of all the ingredients necessary to produce big bucks, deer hunters in this region are sure to keep the record-book officials busy scoring some impressive racks.

But before you get the idea that everything is just rosy when it comes to trophy-deer hunting in this region, you'd best step back and consider the situation a bit longer.

This part of the state does have one major drawback. The vast majority of acreage in this region is privately owned, making gaining access to hunting land a major hurdle.

Unless you own a tract of land in this area -- or can afford to shell out a few thousand bucks to join one of the exclusive hunting clubs, where slots are always in high demand -- your only remaining option is the limited public land.

Twelve different public tracts -- three national wildlife refuges, seven state wildlife management areas and two national forests -- offer public hunting opportunities in the area.

Another factor that you need to take into account, even though it isn't necessarily weather-related, is the peak of the rut for whichever area of the state you plan to target.

The best strategy is always to concentrate your hunting efforts around the peak of the rut.

The average breeding date can vary as much as six weeks from north to south and across the state. For example, the average breeding date for parts of Greene County in southeast Mississippi is as late as Feb. 1.

In DeSoto County, it's Dec. 15. In Yazoo County, it's the end of December. And in much of Jefferson County, the breeding peaks around Christmas.

Identifying the peak of the rut for your hunting area is much easier now, thanks to the MDWFP biologists. After 20 years of collecting biological data on deer, they have created a map of the average conception dates for each area of the state. Since observable rutting activity peaks about two weeks prior to the average conception date, all you need do to obtain the estimated peak rut period is subtract two weeks from the average date shown on the map for any particular area.

To view the map, you can visit the MDWFP at www.mdwfp.com.