In the old days you might have 3,000 people show up for a gun hunt on Black Warrior. A heavy hunt today is about 1,000 hunters. Spread them out over some 80,000 acres and it's not really crowded with hunters.

"There's a lot more pressure on early hunts, when everyone is real excited, but it drops off a lot on the later hunts," Eakes said.

One of the biggest deer to ever come from Winston County was a Boone and Crockett record book qualifier taken by James Huckbay back in December of 1973. The buck qualified for the Alabama record book as both a typical and a non-typical.

Its typical score was 188 under the AWR method of scoring, while it's non-typical score is 207 1/8. In the B&C system it earned a score of 199 2/8 as a non-typical and placing it No. 7 on that list for the Cotton State.

A lengthy, humorous story detailing the highlights of that long-ago hunt is included in the Millenium (2000) edition of the Alabama Whitetail Records. Huckbay had been invited to hunt with friends at Bankhead Sportsmens' Club. He was easing down a trail into a thick bottom when the buck walked up on him.

He had his scope turned all the way up on 9-power and could basically just see hair when the deer appeared at 35 yards. He thought he'd killed a small deer.

"I was a relatively new deer hunter and I thought they were supposed to be the size of elk," he commented.

The buck had 28-inch main beams and an inside spread of almost 24 inches. It had 16 points, 7 on the right antler and 9 on the left.

Black Warrior typically offers gun hunts in late November around Thanksgiving, three more weekend gun hunts in December, plus the week-long hunt after Christmas and a couple of hunts in January. The archery season is hunter's choice and is open Oct. 15 to Jan. 31.

Hunters on the WMA need a WMA license in addition to their regular hunting license. The weekend gun hunts require hunters to pick up a weekend permit at the checking station. The standard map/permit serves as the permit for the archery season and the week-long gun hunt. Rules on the WMA require hunters to wear safety belts when hunting from tree stands.

The porton of Bankhead National Forest outside of the WMA is open to gun deer hunting for the full season, except on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The national forest is only open to gun hunting on Tuesdays and Wednesdays three times over the course of the season -- immediately prior to Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.

The Black Warrior WMA has a good many plots planted in both cool and warm season foods. Eakes said they're not necessarily the best places to hunt because lots of people start their quest for a Black Warrior deer in the vicinity of a plot.

"The plots draw a lot of interest from hunters, so you end up with a lot of human scent around the plots and it doesn't take long for the deer that use the plots to go nocturnal," he explained.

Look to the thick and hard-to-get to areas, he advised, and your potential to score big improves significantly.

For Your Information
The "Alabama Whitetail Records" book is an important tool in the arsenal of Alabama hunters looking for a true top-end trophy. The book highlights areas of the state where trophies have historically come from and the areas where trophies are currently being taken.

The latest edition of the book was published in July of 2005. Author Dennis Campbell includes commentary in the book about areas of the state where he feels the best trophy potential lies. Winston County is one of those areas.

The book is $49.95 plus 9 percent tax and may be ordered by sending a check to Alabama Whitetail Records, P.O. Box 310727, Birmingham, AL 35231 or by calling (205) 674-0101.

(Editor's Note: Although the author of this article and Dennis Campbell of Alabama Whitetail Records share the same last name and a passion for deer hunting, they are not related.)