Logan's secret, of course, is that it has been closed to firearms hunting since 1979. Its whitetail herd, while still not as plentiful as most other counties, has established a near-ideal doe-to-buck ratio. Bowhunting's relatively light impact on the deer population allows many of the county's bucks to grow to bragging size.

Mingo County might have ranked last among the four bow-only counties last season, but it made up for in consistency whatever it might have lacked in numbers.

Four of its nine Big Buck Club members rank among last year's top 10 typical archery kills. Calvin Wiley's buck, which scored 157 5/8 P&Y, took third-place honors. Woodrow Spradlin's buck ranked sixth at 148 7/8 inches, and Matthew Runyon's trophy ranked 10th at 145 1/8. In the non-typical category, Roger Hurley took second place with a whitetail that taped out at 172 4/8.

The 12,854-acre Laurel Lake WMA near Lenore is Mingo County's largest piece of public property. Its tall hardwoods attract plenty of deer, but its thick undergrowth makes bowhunting a challenge.

Boone County always seems to produce a fair number of trophies, and last year was no exception. Three of the state's top six typical gun kills came from inside the county's borders. Johnny Hatfield's 10-point typical captured top honors at 156 0/8 B&C points. Jeremy Hatfield's buck ranked fifth at 147 2/8 points, and Steve Houchins came in sixth with a whitetail that measured 145 4/8.

WEST VIRGINIA'S BIG BUCK CONTEST, 2004
Typical Bucks, Bow Season
Hunter	County	Score
James Horrocks	Kanawha	161 1/8
William Bradford	Logan	158 1/8
Calvin Wiley	Mingo	157 5/8
Al Gravely	McDowell	156 6/8
Jerry Morgan Jr.	Logan	154 1/8
J. Matthew Brown	Wyoming	148 4/8
Cran Toney	Wyoming	148 3/8
Kevin Green	Wyoming	145 3/8
Matthew Rumpon	Mingo	145 1/8
Randall Matherly	McDowell	144 3/8
Jeff Minnich	Putnam	143 7/8
Greg Coffman	Fayette	143 4/8
Bueford Shell Jr.	Wyoming	140 0/8
Franklin Cook	Wyoming	139 7/8
Lyndell Perry	Wyoming	139 5/8
Forest Elmore III	Logan	139 3/8
Danny Hamrick	Webster	138 7/8
Willie Green	Logan	138 5/8
Michael East Jr.	McDowell	137 5/8
Eric Brown	McDowell	136 7/8
Robert Hale	Wyoming	136 7/8
Michael Vanhoosier	McDowell	136 5/8
Dwayne Christian	Mingo	135 6/8
Alan Milhoan	Wood	135 2/8
Joshua Justice	Mingo	135 2/8
Emia Maynard	Mingo	134 6/8
Mark Lester	Logan	134 3/8
Kenny Cook	Wyoming	133 5/8
Jerry Crabtree	McDowell	131 2/8
Michael Roop	Logan	131 0/8
Non-Typicals
Michael Mills	Raleigh	177 1/8
Roger Hurley	Mingo	172 4/8
Bow kills scored using Pope and Young system. This is not a complete listing of all entries.

The 7,000-acre Fork Creek WMA near Nellis is the county's only public-hunting opportunity.

Few people would expect Kanawha County to rank among the state's best trophy counties, but it does. The industrialized Kanawha Valley, which houses nearly one-sixth of the state's population, gobbles up most of the county's 903-square-mile landmass. The habitat that remains, however, holds more than its share of big-antlered bucks. Three of them made the Big Buck Club last year.

James Horrocks' giant 12-pointer captured top honors in the bow-killed typical category with a score of 161 1/8 points P&Y. Harry Mullins' buck took second among gun-killed typicals at 150 5/8, and James McElwee's trophy scored 143 0/8 to take seventh in that same category.

As one might expect from such a heavily populated area, Kanawha County's public hunting opportunities are fairly limited. The 9,250-acre Kanawha SF, just south of Charleston, is a relatively untapped resource, mainly because hunters must compete with hordes of hikers, mountain bikers, birders and nature enthusiasts from the nearby city. Rewards can be handsome, however, for hunters who make the effort to hike far back into the forest's remote areas.

Trophy whitetails might become a little easier to find in the not-too-distant future, as soon as a new DNR initiative begins bearing fruit. Agency director Frank Jezioro has given biologists an assignment: Identify tracts of land that could be managed to grow trophy-class deer, draw up regulations for managing those tracts, and get the job done by early next year.

"In my opinion, a lot of people would prefer to hunt for older-aged bucks," Jezioro said. "The trend is away from 'hunting for meat.' More people appear to be 'hunting for the experience,' letting does and smaller bucks walk in the hope of later killing a buck with big antlers."

Jezioro equates the proposed trophy-buck areas to the special-regulation areas the DNR currently maintains for fishermen.

"Enough people support catch-and-release fishing to justify our management of special-regulation fishing areas," he said. "The same would go for hunting. We certainly have enough hunters who are interested in trophy bucks to justify this initiative."