"Hunters want more of the state to become a two-buck area, as was implemented in the Western and Central regions a few years ago," Stanford said. "But in some western areas, they also wanted a longer season and it was implemented. The result was that they harvested more bucks during the extra days and completely lost any benefit of the two-buck rule as a result of that. Now hunters in the Northwestern Region want a longer season as well. It could be that they will also lose the benefit of the two-buck rule there if we change the regulations."

Deer management in North Carolina is becoming as much a people management process as a wildlife management process. The commission is currently completing a hunter dimensions survey to see what hunters want now that the deer herd is thriving statewide. With the exception of the low-density Western Region, hunters in the mountains and central region are already more efficient, taking more deer per square mile of habitat during the shorter season than in the Eastern Region. It's mostly attributed to attitudes. Most hunters take one or two deer per season and they want that first or second deer to be an antlered buck.

Some hunters in the Central and Eastern regions that are under the four-buck rule go to the two-buck rule. However, even with that rule, there won't be any benefit unless hunters choose to take more does and let more bucks walk away. If they do not, harvest ratios and sex ratios will remain the same. As long as most hunters take only a deer or two, changes in regulations to limit the number of bucks is unlikely to result in more trophy antlered deer roaming the forests and fields.

Some hunters want the season extended into January and some want it to end in mid-December. Everyone seems to have a different opinion.

"Hunters in the mountain regions want it all," Stanford said. "They want a longer season, a longer doe season, but they want more trophy bucks."

Of course, those propositions are in opposition to one another. Even on a nationwide basis, antler size and point restrictions, bonus antlerless seasons, and shooting a doe before a buck have proved of limited value in increasing the antler sizes of trophy deer on a broad scale. Some of the problem lies in the definition of a "trophy" set of buck antlers.

Based on a statewide average of DMAP and hunter check station buck harvests several years ago, there is not much variation throughout the state in the sizes of buck antlers. The average buck was aged at 2.4 years, live weight was 126 pounds, average number of points was 5.6, average diameter was .94 inches and the average spread was 10.55 inches.

"Our hunter surveys tell us most hunters consider an 8-point rack that's 15 inches wide as a trophy," Stanford said. "But for some hunters, a spike is a trophy and others are looking for something much larger. It depends on how long they've been hunting, how often they get to hunt and other personal factors. But across the state, that would be a buck in the more than 3-year-old category."

Some of the state's regions grow more trophy bucks because the habitat is better. Many of them have produced some surprising trophies in the past. But certain trends have become norms in the last few seasons.