The third stop on last year's list of trophy producers is Logan County, which yielded five Big Buck Club members. One of the four bow-only counties, Logan has a solid reputation as a trophy producer, even if its whitetail population isn't quite as high as McDowell's or Wyoming's. The major bugaboo about Logan County is that it doesn't have much public land. That certainly didn't deter George Green, who bagged the ninth largest bow-killed typical of the 2006 season at 156 6/8.

David Roberts' buck ranked 11th in the state at 151 6/8. The three other Logan bucks were considerably smaller -- Keith Adkins' at 127 1/8, Tracy Butcher's at 127 0/8 and Chris Roberts' at 125 5/8.

Because surface mining of coal so dominates the Logan landscape, finding an untrammeled place to hunt requires a bit of research. Careful pre-season scouting, judicious permission getting and proper stewardship of coal-company land go a long way toward being invited back.

The growing popularity of the Hatfield-McCoy Trail, a prominent destination for ATV enthusiasts, has helped to improve the county's ability to accommodate guests. The new lodge at Chief Logan State Park makes a good jumping-off point for visiting bowhunters. It's located just off four-lane U.S. Route 119 between Logan and Chapmanville, about an hour's drive south of Charleston.

In recent years, Raleigh County has become a destination spot for hunters of trophy whitetails. Last year's performance showed why. No fewer than four Big Buck Club honorees came from the county, and every single one is something to brag about.

Bowhunter Gregory Williams took the biggest, a trophy that scored 162 4/8 B&C and placed third in the archery typical category. Right behind Williams' entry came William Worley's fourth-ranked bow-killed typical at 162 1/8.

Curiously, the county's two firearms trophies weren't quite as large as its bow kills. Jonathan Shrewsbury's buck scored 150 0/8 to take third in the gun-killed typical category, and Timothy Day's whitetail scored 148 5/8.

Raleigh doesn't have a single state-owned WMA, and it has no state or national forests. Even so, public-land aficionados can find a place to hunt in the New River Gorge National River, which encompasses tens of thousands of acres along its namesake waterway. The National Park Service controls the property, but special legislation allows hunting there.

The West Virginia Turnpike (Interstate 64/77) runs roughly north-to-south through the county and provides access from Charleston, Bluefield and White Sulphur Springs. Appalachian Highway Corridor L (U.S. Route 19) stretches from the turnpike north toward Fayetteville, the epicenter of New River Gorge recreation activity.

Back in the early 1980s, Mason County was arguably West Virginia's top-producing trophy area. Hunters believed the big bucks were "Meigs County monsters" that had swam across the Ohio River from neighboring Ohio. The supply of trophies dried up in the 1990s, but the past two seasons have been quite productive. Last year, the county yielded three Big Buck Club members. Somewhat surprisingly, all of them were bow kills.

Jeffrey Karr Jr. topped the trio with a mossy-horned non-typical that scored 155 3/8. Scott Roush Jr. followed with a typical that scored 138 7/8. Jerry Jordan rounded out the county's list with a typical that scored 133 4/8.

Mason's public hunting lands are both sizable and of superb quality. The largest tract is the 11,772-acre Chief Cornstalk WMA near Southside. Its low hills contain old wood lots, fresh wildlife plantings, overgrown farmsteads and plenty of mature hardwood timber -- in other words, ideal whitetail habitat.

The McClintic WMA, off SR 62 between Point Pleasant and Lakin, provides trophy hunters with their best shot at a wallhanger. It's one of the older-aged deer WMAs established by the DNR. Special antler-size regulations, now in their fourth year, have made the 3,655-acre complex of farmland and woodland a popular destination among hunters of every stripe.