By John J. Woods

Time is a precious commodity, and most of us don't use it very wisely. In this regard, deer hunters are often even worse planners than is usual. Many seem to want a magic wand to wave around, casting a spell to make big bucks appear out of a vaporous cloud. They also want some kind of mumbo-jumbo chant to conjure up a list of hotspots in which every buck is a monster trophy, or, perhaps, a mystic pill to reduce their efforts to an hour or less in the woods.

Well, sorry, Charlie - there just ain't no such thing as a supernatural trophy-whitetail charm. Still, there are some tricks in the bag.

People who play with numbers for a living suggest that statistics can be manipulated to say practically anything you want them to say. Maybe that's true under certain circumstances. When it comes to hard data collected on whitetail deer, however, the facts usually speak for themselves. Of course, one slice of pizza does not make the whole pie, nor does one piece of information tell the whole story; that generally takes a comprehensive examination of the complete vista. This is especially true when it comes to picking a prime public deer-hunting location.

Of course, nature can fool you - so maybe the statisticians have a point. Sometimes, it's not simple, really, and the science of scanning numbers to extract precise whitetail hunting trends for a piece of public hunting land has to come into play. And it's then that careful examination of the right kinds of hunting and harvest data can prove quite useful.

But in hunting, reality rarely works out that tidy way, so we'd probably all be better off in the long run just to learn to enjoy our time afield and not concentrate so hard on gaining a specific result. But then, what's the point? We go to the woods to bag a buck!

In Mississippi, many are hard pressed for time to balance deer hunting with other commitments. Photo by John J. Woods

Deer data from public lands can be looked at in a number of ways in order to select a site suited to an individual hunter anywhere in the state. In conducting this search over the years, I have narrowed my examination of the information to a few basics. Selecting some of those basics depends on common sense, while others require making decisions by looking at a few critical figures regarding our wildlife management areas that are compiled annually by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. These essential items provide a good place to start.

Your proximity to a tract of land is the first consideration in picking a WMA for deer hunting. Only if you have the time and inclination to travel anywhere in the state at any time during the hunting season does this become a moot point.

We're talking about using time wisely here, so first pick an area close enough to home to allow for maximum scouting and hunting time. Once you've figured out how long and far you can travel to do this practically, you have your parameters set. If a 100-mile radius from home is a realistic distance to travel to deer hunt for a few days, then why bother looking any farther out?

Mississippi's six wildlife districts contain 42 WMAs open to the public for hunting. No matter where you live in the state, it's not a problem to find a decent public hunting area.

You have to be careful when looking at a single piece of information, though' additional bits of data need to be considered closely as well. Just tracking total harvest by sex does not usually paint the whole picture. Other pieces of information, such WMA acreage, man-days of hunting activity, and the average number of man-days required to harvest a deer, should also be given due weight in the overall equation.

For example: A WMA yielding 250 bucks in a single hunting season might sound like a great location. But what if the site's total acreage is in the neighborhood of 100,000? Suddenly, finding a buck on such a massive tract doesn't sound quite so easy.

Then, if you factor in 25,000 man-days of hunting activity during the season, the story changes even more. Most public-land deer hunters often don't understand the concept of data on man-days. A "man-day" is generally defined as one hunter hunting during one day, regardless of whether he spends one hour or eight hours in the woods. If a thousand deer hunters descend on a WMA on one day, then the activity on that site is 1,000 man-days.

These data are collected at self-service permit check-in stations at the WMAs. Hunters are required to check in and fill out a harvest report card. This information is then compiled for each area at the end of the season. The resulting man-day data can be useful in judging the level of hunting activity at a given WMA.

Likewise, the figures on man-days per deer represent another statistical marker that should be examined when making choices about which public lands to hunt. The number is obtained by dividing the total number of man-days of activity for the season by the total deer harvest for that year. The resulting figure is the average man-days required to harvest a deer on that WMA. The figure often reported is for all the deer harvested regardless of sex. However, it is easy enough to divide total man-days by bucks taken to get a man-day-per-buck figure.

In the earlier example, dividing 25,000 man-days by 250 bucks killed yields an average of 100 man-days per deer taken. That is a lot of days in the woods for each buck harvested! Plus, the sheer number of man-days of activity also implies considerable hunting pressure on this property. Such statistics can make the large number of whitetails harvested much less impressive. Having to compete with a lot of other hunters on a massive chunk of land is probably not a recipe for quick success.

Inspect the numbers for specific WMAs, and you can get a better feel for which are the prime hunting spots. Still, some of the decision comes down to simple hunter preference. You may not mind the challenge of competing with a lot of hunters on a large tract that yields a lot of deer. On the other hand, your pleasure may tend more toward targeting a smaller WMA that can be more effectively scouted in a shorter period of time.

Now that we've looked at the criteria, it's time to put it to the test by picking some of the top WMAs in the state that allow the wisest use of your limited time to scout and hunt. Here's a look at the WMA from each of the six wildlife districts that offers the best statistical options for bagging a deer.

This WMA doesn't experience heavy hunting pressure; the last seasonal data reported its man-day total as 875. On average it took deer hunters 17 days to harvest a deer - a fairly low number. The total deer harvest was only 51 deer, but of that number, 34, or 66 percent of the kill, were bucks. John W. Starr obviously is a promising area to try.

For hunters in this district who are short of time for scouting, Malmaison looks like a good option. That a deer was taken for every 37 acres on the tract indicates that the herd is quite large for the size of the property. You shouldn't have to scout massive areas to find a likely place for hanging a stand.

Sunflower total deer harvest was 372. Of that number, bucks totaled 211, and does 161. Though the total kill provides impressive numbers, the total of man-days hunted, 9,555, looks excessively high. But, again, this is an unusually large piece of public land. I've hunted Sunflower, and though I've encountered other hunters on the roadways, I've met none in the woods.

The man-days per deer came in at 26, which is a very reasonable number for a WMA this large. With its flooded greentree system, numerous bayous, and edges bordering lush farm crops, Sunflower has to be considered a best choice when time is scant.

Of the eight WMAs in this district, the nod goes to 25,300-acre Bienville WMA, which lies in Scott County and is surrounded by the national forest of the same name. Bienville's habitat consists of a lot of pine hills and hardwood bottoms.

Hunting pressure here is relatively low - 2,263 man-days in the last data reported. Hunters took 71 bucks and 23 does. An arresting statistic: Bucks made up 75 percent of the total harvest. The figure for acres per deer taken here is somewhat high, but the man-days-per-deer number is modest at 24. All in all, it's a good area.

Spread over 15,042 acres, the total deer-kill figure of 40 isn't impressive for the size of the tract - but 29 of those were bucks. On the other hand, the total man-days of hunting, 1,715, and average man-days per deer, 43, are the lowest reported in the district.

Though these aren't great numbers, remember that the area didn't have a lot of hunters running all over the woods either. That lower hunting pressure on Old River is the factor setting it above the pack in this district.