The easiest access to Wyoming County comes from Interstate 64/77 near Beckley. State Route (SR) 16 brings traffic from Beckley to Mullens, and SR 10 distributes it west and east toward Pineville and Herndon.

Wyoming's next-door neighbor to the south, McDowell County, was the other linchpin in the state's trophy-producing machine last year. McDowell's rugged hills yielded a total of eight Big Buck Club trophies.

The best one was a real whopper. Stephen Beckner of Welch put his arrow into a titanic 12-pointer that scored 161 6/8. The massive whitetail earned Beckner the trophy for West Virginia's largest bow-killed typical of 2005.

Darin Haynes' buck was no slouch, either. It scored 148 0/8, good enough for sixth in the category. Other P&Y trophies include Kevin Otey's at 142 2/8, James Hicks' at 139 6/8, Mark Delida's at 135 5/8, Thomas Little's at 128 3/8, Roy Dyson's at 126 3/8, and Kevin Graham's at 125 1/8.

Like Wyoming County, McDowell is coal and timber country. Many of its underground mines have long since been worked out, but many surface mines remain active. In general, companies frown upon having hunters in active mining areas.

Fortunately for bowhunters, the county is home to three sizable public hunting areas -- the 18,000-acre Berwind Lake WMA near Berwind, the 2,308-acre Tug Fork WMA near Premier and the 10,000-acre Panther State Forest near Panther.

Simply put, there is no easy way to drive to McDowell County. From Interstate 77 and U.S. Route 460 near Princeton, the best bet is to take curvy U.S. Route 52 to the county seat of Welch and try to branch off from there. All of the county's primary and secondary roads tend to be narrow, winding and have more than their share of coal-truck traffic. Patience is as much a virtue for motorists in McDowell County as it is for bowhunters.

Ordinarily the poor cousin among the state's bow-only counties, Mingo County stepped up and assumed a leader's role last season.

Of course, it's hard to take a back seat when you produce the biggest buck in the entire state. Bowhunter Terry Ballard of Logan claimed the prize for 2005's largest bow-killed non-typical with a fine 18-pointer that scored 164 4/8.

Mingo's other Big Buck Club honorees include Daryll Messer's typical that scored 148 7/8, Scott Bartram's typical at 141 0/8, Jeremy Hale's typical at 134 0/8, and Terry Grace's typical that scored 133 0/8.

Finding a place to hunt in Mingo County is a bit more difficult than it is in Wyoming or McDowell. The county's coalmines remain in full-blast production mode, and mountaintop-removal surface mining is the dominant technique. Careful pre-season scouting and a bit of legwork can determine what tracts can be hunted and what ones are off-limits.

The sprawling 12,854-acre Laurel Lake WMA is the county's only public-hunting area. It's rugged country. Its steep slopes and narrow ridges are covered with hardwoods, hemlocks and -- just to add insult to exercise -- heavy undergrowth.

U.S. routes 119 and 52 are the major access roads. The former is a four-lane, limited-access freeway that delivers hunters from Charleston to the Mingo County seat of Williamson in less than two hours. The latter is a tortuous, twisting two-lane road that can try any motorist's patience, especially when coal trucks and semi-trailers dominate the traffic.