Although trophies can pop up just about anywhere in the Mountain State, Thorn believes the heaviest concentration of bragging-sized bucks lies in the counties southwest of the New and Kanawha rivers.

"If you want to up your chances of taking a big buck, I'd recommend hunting during the rifle season in Raleigh, Fayette, Summers, Kanawha, Boone or Nicholas counties," he said. "Unless you're a really skilled bowhunter, those counties would probably be your best bets for shooting a deer with above-average antlers. A sizable number of the typical bucks killed by gun hunters in those counties would have made the Pope and Young book for bow kills."

Last year's Big Buck Club statistics seem to confirm Thorn's assertions. The counties he mentions accounted for 10 of 58 eventual Big Buck Club members. Boone and Kanawha counties led the way with three apiece, followed by Raleigh's two and Fayette's one.

"But really, during the gun season, finding a trophy buck is a matter of being in the right place at the right time," he said. "I personally got a really nice buck last year in Upshur County, a place that isn't renowned for producing trophies. The buck I shot was a 6 1/2-year-old 7-pointer, with big, wide beams. He'd have scored well except he was missing a tine. But he was huge, more than 200 pounds. He was the biggest buck I've seen in Upshur County in ages."

The bottom line, Thorn said, is that "there's hope for any hunter in West Virginia to be able to kill a trophy."

No area is better for that, however, than the rugged, mining-scarred landscape that lies inside the borders of the four bow-only counties. And of the four, McDowell County is the current kingpin.

Hunters harvested 12 Big Buck Club nominees within its borders last season. The biggest was a whitetail taken by Al Gravely that scored 156 6/8 P&Y and ranks fourth among bow-killed typicals. McDowell bucks taken by Randall Matherly, Michael East Jr., Eric Brown and Michael Vanhoosier rank among the top 25 typicals.

Fortunately for bowhunters, public hunting land is fairly abundant in the county. The 10,640-acre Panther State Forest (SF) near Panther is the largest tract. The 2,308-acre Tug Fork Wildlife Management Area (WMA) near Premier and the 1,792-acre Anawalt WMA near Anawalt provide less acreage but equally productive habitat.

McDowell's next-door neighbor, Wyoming County, took second place in the trophy-antler derby with 11 Big Buck nominees. It wasn't the quantity of Wyoming's bucks that stood out, however. It was the quality.

Seven of the county's 11 bucks ranked among the state's top 25 typicals. J. Matthew Brown led the way with a whitetail that measures 148 4/8 P&Y and had the seventh-highest score. Close on its heels were Oran Toney's eighth-place buck at 148 3/8, Kevin Green's ninth-place buck at 145 3/8, Bueford Shell's 14th-place buck at 140 0/8, Franklin Cook's 15th-place buck at 139 7/8, and Lyndell Perry's 16th-place buck at 139 5/8. The 17,280-acre R.D. Bailey Lake WMA near Baileysville is the county's largest tract of public hunting land. Its steep ridges and deep hollows surround a 630-acre U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flood-control impoundment.

For a county that has no public hunting land to speak of, Logan County put on quite an impressive show last season. Archers bagged nine Big Buck Club nominees within the county's borders, and some of those were dandies.

William Bradford's big typical ranked second statewide at 158 1/8 P&Y points. Jerry Morgan Jr. took fifth place with a typical that scores 154 1/8.