The last two seasons have had relatively good weather in the mountains, as well as in the Coastal Plain, so hunters could actually get out and hunt, according to Stanford.

One boost to the deer herd, including the number of antlered bucks available to hunters, was a low incidence of hemorrhagic disease mortality over the last few years. The most severe outbreak was in 2002 when 20 to 25 percent or more of the deer herd could have succumbed to the disease in some areas of the state.

Now, many of the counties with the highest buck harvests -- Alleghany, Northampton, Caswell and Halifax, for example -- have very robust deer herds again. Some of these top buck harvest counties are more rural than others and therefore have larger deer populations. Others are close to high-density human population centers and that translates into having plenty of hunter pressure, which also accounts for high buck harvests. Combining the two factors, large numbers of deer with large numbers of hunters, is what makes most counties top the antlered buck harvests for each district.

To sort out things like large water bodies and urbanized areas with little deer habitat for comparing deer populations and harvests on an equal footing, commission biologists use a formula that gives them the antlered buck harvest per square mile of actual deer habitat.

Alleghany County topped the state, with 7.94 antlered bucks harvested per square mile of habitat (abh/sm). It has both a very dense deer herd, with upward of 45 deer per square mile, and also gets plenty of hunting pressure. Many acres of pasture lands on the escarpment, with fertile soils and hardwood stands, make it a deer paradise compared with other parts of the state. The county has a maximum either-sex season and the season has been expanded from 18 days five or six years ago to the current 25-day season. Numerous hunters have discovered this northern mountain county, driving it to become No. 1 in the state for antlered buck harvest.

The best counties for harvesting a buck in 2007 in each district of the state are very likely to be the same counties that were best in 2006. There may some county line variability this year, but the general location of the best counties in terms of antlered buck potential should remain essentially the same. For example, Alleghany County has no commission game lands, but just across the county line to the south of Alleghany County is Wilkes County, with 6,700 acres in the Thurmond Chatham Game Land hailed by hunters as a top place to take a trophy buck.

In District 1, Bertie County was the top county with 3.58 abh/sm, followed by Gates County with 3.50 abh/sm. The total antlered buck harvest was 2,197 in Bertie County and 1,008 in Gates County. Both of these counties have high deer densities along the Roanoke River corridor, with 45 or more deer per square mile along the river and 35 to 40 deer per square mile along the remaining deer habitats in those counties. In Bertie County, the Roanoke River Game Land has excellent hunting. In Gates County, hunters will find plenty of antlered bucks on Chowan Swamp Game Land, which has over 21,000 acres of deer habitat.

In District 2, Pitt County was the top county with 2.76 abh/sm, followed by Pender County with 2.69 abh/sm. The total antlered buck harvest was 1,330 in Pitt County and 1,928 in Pender County. Pitt County does not have any territory in game lands. However, the rapidly growing human population center of Greenville translates into high hunting pressure on the surrounding agricultural land. In the northern part of Pitt County, the Tar River bottoms support a good deer herd, and in the southern part of the county, the Neuse River floodplain also supports deer densities as high as 35 deer per square mile.

In Pender County, Holly Shelter and Angola Bay game lands, along with private lands along the northeast Cape Fear River, have similarly high deer densities. The combination of the high human population supplying deer hunters from the greater Wilmington area, plenty of hunting territory and high deer densities make Pender County a top spot to take an antlered buck.