West Virginia's 2005 deer-hunting seasons might have been a disappointment where numbers were concerned, but not in regard to trophy bucks. After all, Mountain State sportsmen harvested 208 trophies worthy of being scored by Division of Natural Resources (DNR) biologists. Of those, 51 deer qualified for membership in the agency's annual Big Buck Club.

Truth be told, 71 bucks scored high enough to make the club, but 20 trophies were disqualified because hunters couldn't verify their game-checking tags or had neglected to include a fair-chase statement.

"All in all, it wasn't a bad year for trophy bucks," said Gene Thorn, the biologist who oversees the Big Buck Contest. "We actually had more deer brought in this year to be scored than we had the year before."

Considering that West Virginia's overall deer harvest plummeted 24 percent -- from 179,066 in 2004 to just 135,361 last season -- it would have been natural to expect trophy production to drop off by a similar rate. That didn't happen. Big Buck Club membership dropped just 15 percent, from 60 in 2004 to 51 last season. Had it not been for the high number of disqualifications, the club almost certainly would have had more trophies during a poor year of hunting than it had during the relatively productive preceding year.

DNR officials believe there are two very powerful reasons why trophy deer have remained abundant while the overall statewide population has been reduced:

"First, we have more older-age bucks in the population statewide," said Paul Johansen, assistant chief of the agency's Wildlife Resources Section. "Second, we have four counties that are closed to hunting with firearms, and they've become true strongholds of trophy production."

Johansen credits recent changes in antlerless deer regulations for increasing the number of older-aged bucks.

"Back before we allowed many does to be killed, more than 90 percent of the harvest every year was 1 1/2-year-old bucks," he explained.

No area in the state has a better or longer-standing reputation than Wyoming County for producing big bucks. The county's rugged landscape, punctuated by steep-sided mountains and swift-flowing streams, yielded almost one-fifth of all the DNR's Big Buck Club qualifiers last season -- a mind-bending 10 bucks that scored 125 or more on the Pope and Young Club's (P&Y) whitetail scoring scale.

Steven Rowan's trophy led the way. The buck scored 147 7/8 to finish seventh among bow-killed typicals. Dean Bower's wallhanger tied for ninth at 145 5/8. The rest of the county's bruisers included Nathaniel Nay's 140 0/8, Greg Green's 139 1/8, Mark Lafferty's 138 5/8, Curtis Weaver II's 137 3/8, Shaye Justice Jr.'s 132 2/8, Philip Young's 131 4/8, Duane Surface's 127 2/8 and Robert Morgan's 125 1/8.

Finding a place to hunt within the county isn't terribly difficult. Most of the land is owned by large coal corporations or timber-holding companies. Some of it is posted against hunting, but much of it is treated as public property.

The most difficult task many outsiders will face is adjusting to the difficult terrain. The hills aren't terribly high, but they're extremely steep. The loose, rocky soil makes footing tough.

Two areas of Wyoming County probably attract more hunters than all the others combined. Twin Falls State Park is closed to hunting, but its reputation as a breeding ground for trophy bucks makes its outlying boundaries particularly attractive. Ever since 1986, when Jerry Hill bagged the state-record non-typical just outside the park near Saulsville, tree stands have ringed Twin Falls every autumn.

The 17,280-acre R.D. Bailey Wildlife Management Area straddles the county border near Baileysville. Its slopes, heavily forested with oak and hickory trees, harbor a fine whitetail population as well.