MORE DEER COVERAGE • 2004 Deer Outlook, Part 1 • 2004 Rut Report in North American Whitetail Forums

By John J. Woods

In the world of deer hunting, a certified trophy buck is an anomaly - a deviation from the common, an irregularity. Given the small number of trophy-class bucks seen in total by most hunters during their careers afield, you might even call connecting on an officially scored record-book whitetail buck a super-duper anomaly. The chances are that rare.

However, it is exactly this grand prize, the Holy Grail of whitetail hunting, that keeps many of us going back to the woods every fall. Any deer hunter who attempts to tell you that he or she couldn't care less about hanging a trophy buck in the living room is probably in denial.

And while we pressure ourselves to secure a trophy buck, the standard seems to be rising. For example: During the 2003-04 season a new No. 1 archery buck, which Tracy Laird of Natchez arrowed on Oct. 22, 2003, entered the state record books. With 24 scorable points, the Adams County buck's final tabulation yielded a Pope and Young Club non-typical mark of 236 1/8.

One certainly might consider the taking of such a buck as an once-in-a-lifetime event. Yet total score is not really the most compelling aspect of this buck. What's really notable here is that the rack topped the previous No. 1 buck's headgear by a full 32 inches of antler!

This situation is reminiscent of that with Tony Fulton's state-record firearms non-typical from the 1994 season. That 295 6/8 B&C rack topped its closest competitor by a whopping 70-plus inches of antler.

What used to be considered a really good trophy buck now may only be regarded as a so-so animal in some circles. For some proof of that, just attend the annual Mississippi Wildlife Extravaganza in Jackson next August to get a firsthand glimpse of the quality of the bucks that our state's native habitat is producing every year.

Fortunately, the ongoing increase in both the scarcity and size of trophy bucks seems only to have encouraged most of us to work harder and smarter at our sport.

Photo by Ron Sinfelt

Not only can this data illustrate the areas of the state that have given up the best bucks, but it can also highlight top areas within wildlife districts, individual counties or even wildlife management areas. Taken together, these sources of information can lead to informed decisions about where to go after a trophy-class buck.

Let's take a closer look at each of these four sources of information.

Of course, what's of interest here is not the system itself, but its revelation of exactly where in Mississippi most of the B&C record book bucks have come from. Up through May 2004, the Magnolia State has given up a total of 65 bucks that topped the B&C minimums. Of those, however, 16 have never been officially registered with the club.

Looking at all the B&C bucks recorded thus far in the state turns attention to a specific group of elite counties. Tops among these counties for officially documented B&C bucks are Madison and Adams counties with five each, followed by Lowndes and Wilkerson with four each. Rounding out the top five list with three B&C bucks is Coahoma County.

It's generally accepted that hunting with bow and arrow is a more difficult way to connect on a trophy buck, the major reason for that being the effective range of a shot: Bowhunters usually down deer at a maximum effective range of little more than 30 yards, whereas a gun hunter can make accurate shots of 200 yards or more. Thus, the minimums for putting a buck in the P&Y all-time records are 125 points for typicals and 155 for non-typicals. As of May 2004, 244 bucks had been reported that would make the P&Y record book, although 42 of those have never been officially registered with the club.

The top five counties for recognized P&Y bucks in the state are led by Washington County, with a whopping 27 registered trophies. Claiborne County is close, with 20 P&Y bucks. Next are Warren, with 14, and Issaquena, at 10. In a four-way tie, the fifth slot is occupied jointly by Adams, Carroll, Coahmoa and Madison counties, with nine each. Note that several of these top P&Y counties lie along the Mississippi River or in the Delta region of the state.

Such information could be vital to future whitetail management plans, perhaps even allowing for harvest flexibility by specific regions. So far, the Tel-Chek program has received 7,143 reports of deer harvests; of those, 3,357 have been bucks. Of course, in this instance we don't know for sure whether or not the whitetails qualified as trophies, only that they were bucks. With regard to the kind of antlers the bucks sported, however, it's worth noting that 17 percent of the total had racks with inside spreads of 18 inches or wider.

The top five counties in the Tel-Chek records for bucks harvested are: Warren, with 120; Claiborne, Copiah and Lafayette counties, tied with 107 each; and Carroll, accounting for 102.

The minimum scores for making the MRP list are 155 for non-typicals and 125 for typical antlers. Currently, 2,265 bucks are entered into the database. Each has been officially scored using either the B&C or P&Y system. Of the total number, 105 are classified as non-typicals, with the other 2,160 registered as typicals.

The top five counties producing record bucks on the MRP list are Claiborne at 98, Madison with 86, Hinds at 71, Jefferson with 69 and Yazoo at 64.

For that reason, Mississippi's 42 state-operated wildlife management areas covering more than 800,000 acres become important; that's a nice piece of acreage for public access. And many of these WMAs are exceptional buck-hunting areas, too.

Harvest figures for bucks on the WMAs can be analyzed from a number of different perspectives. The most obvious and easiest is just to look at the total number of bucks hunters reported killing on each area. That would put the Sunflower WMA with 221 bucks in the 2002-03 season at the top of the list. This area is located in the big Delta National Forest north of Vicksburg and off U.S. Highway 61 near Rolling Fork.

The other top nine buck harvest WMAs are: Chickasawhay dog-hunt area with 206; Upper Sardis, 152; Caney Creek, 117; Leaf River, 100; Copiah County, 89; Tallahala, 89; Chickasawhay still-hunt area, 83; Bienville, 79; and Sandy Creek with 78 bucks for that season.

It is worth noting that combining the totals from the two Chickasawhay areas yields 289 bucks, placing it far head in the race for the most productive WMA in this category.

There are, however, a number of other factors to look at before deciding on a WMA to hunt this year. You should also consider the total acres in the tracts and hunting pressure as express by the number of hunter-days of effort expended, which is an indication of hunting pressure as well as the relative difficulty of harvesting a buck. Other points to ponder are acres per deer taken, and acres per buck taken. Often, smaller acreages giving up limited numbers of bucks can be better choices than large tracts yielding larger numbers of deer.

For some, the doubt that arises regarding public land bucks centers on a single problem: We really don't know anything about the trophy quality of the bucks taken on WMA lands - and based on the data alone, that's true. On the other hand, the law of averages favors some of the bucks on any tract growing trophy racks. If deer hunters at Sunflower WMA took 221 bucks, it's only reasonable to expect that some of those animals sported trophy-class antlers. This can be confirmed by making a quick call to the area manager for any WMA you might be interested in hunting.

For example: I wanted to check out the trophy potential of Copiah County WMA just south of Jackson as a potential buck area. With one call to the area manager I was able to find out that this past season the top buck had a 140-class B&C rack that was only an 8-pointer.

Once on the site, click on the Hunting section and you'll find links to Tel-Chek program, the Magnolia Record Program and the Deer Data Book. And, of course, all the current hunting regulations are also available.

Another great MDWFP resource comes in the form of topographic maps of the WMAs combined with aerial photographs of the areas. These excellent quality publications have the topo map on one side, with the corresponding photo on the other. The cost of the maps is $10 per WMA. For more ordering information, contact the MDWFP at (601) 432-2119.