All of these counties are in the northern half of the state, with most of them clustered in the northeastern corner. But the central Piedmont county of Rowan has been a consistent producer of deer in all categories, from total harvest to antlered buck harvest, for the past several seasons. The same is true of Alleghany County in the northwestern mountain region. Alamance and Vance counties, which are located in the northern Piedmont, are also consistent producers of deer, across all categories, but simply have small landmasses, so it takes the antlered buck harvest per square mile to show the potential of these smaller counties.

For hunters who don't have access to places to hunt in these top 10 counties, or can't afford to drive long distances to take advantage of hunting in them, we've used the commission's statistics to identify the top two counties in each district in terms of antlered bucks harvested per square mile of habitat. That information is contained in the charts accompanying this article.

While the antlered buck harvest per square mile is a big help in deciding where to hunt, predicting potential for antlered buck harvest is not really as simple as looking at statistics. Stanford said two other factors come into play -- overall deer density and hunter effort.

For example, Alamance County is in the top 10 in bucks-per-square-mile measures. But the habitat is not exceptional. The county is, however, located at the epicenter of one of the highest human populations centers in the state. Burlington is inside the county's borders and the county is located along the Interstate 40 corridor between Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and the Greensboro metropolitan area. Yet the Haw River drainage has plenty of habitat that is inhospitable to human habitation, creating an island of deer habitat in Alamance County that is surrounded by residential and commercial development.

In District 1, Bertie and Hertford counties had the highest buck-per-square-mile counts. These counties have excellent deer habitat in swamps of the Chowan River, with a good mix of farmland and forest on the uplands. In Bertie County, the Roanoke River area offers a similar combination of perfect habitat. These three ingredients, river floodplains, farmland and forestland, create the top hunting opportunities in most of the state's best antlered buck producing areas. The Chowan Swamp Game Land has 21,171 acres of prime deer hunting habitat in these two counties. Several tracts of the Roanoke River Game Land are located in Bertie County.

In District 2, Pitt and Greene counties lead the bucks-per-square-mile category. These two counties have some excellent privately held forest habitat, but no public hunting lands. Other counties ranking within a buck's jump of these counties were Pender and Craven. The Tar, Trent, Neuse and Northeast Cape Fear river bottomlands offer high deer densities, with lots of farmland and timberland on the upland areas -- habitat conditions that can allow deer to grow big antlers. Covering 160,724 acres in Jones, Craven and Carteret counties, the Croatan Game Land provides excellent hunting. In Pender County, the Angola Bay Game Land at 24,483 acres and the Holly Shelter Game Land complex at 64,743 acres offer excellent deer hunting.

In District 3, Vance and Northampton counties topped the statistics for the second year, thanks to an excellent mix of farmland and timberland. The Roanoke River floodplain is excellent habitat for producing antlered deer in Northampton County. A small part of the Roanoke River Wetlands Game Land is located in Northampton County.