Black Warrior, Freedom Hills and Lauderdale WMAs now administer deer hunting on at least a portion of their lands under Quality Deer Management; a buck must have 3 points on one side to be legal.

Good private lands, as mentioned earlier, are found in Marion, Fayette and Lamar counties.

The counties in the northeastern corner of the state are Jackson, Marshall, DeKalb, Cherokee, Etowah, Blount, St. Clair, Calhoun, Cleburne, Randolph, Clay and Talladega. Randy Liles is the supervising biologist for this region.

The sprawling James D. Martin-Skyline WMA in Jackson County is thought of as the public area in this district exhibiting the highest trophy potential. Some new property is being added to the WMA this season, and that should be an exciting factor for hunters who use the tract. It has a little bit of everything: bottomland farms, rolling plateaus, and steep, wooded mountains.

Central
The central-western portion of the state comprises Pickens, Sumter, Greene, Marengo, Tuscaloosa, Hale, Jefferson, Bibb, Perry, Shelby, Dallas and Chilton counties. Generally speaking, it lies within the Black Belt, which we've already designated as perhaps the best trophy region in the state at present.

State deer studies coordinator Chris Cook, who works in this part of the state, suggested that some of the best counties for big deer are Green, Dallas, Pickens and Tuscaloosa, and picks Cahaba River as the WMA with the best big-buck potential in this portion of the Cotton State.

East-central Alabama is another region that year in and year out has outstanding hunting for the best-quality bucks. The counties in this region are Coosa, Tallapoosa, Chambers, Autauga, Elmore, Macon, Lee, Russell, Bullock, Montgomery and Lowndes. Several of those counties are also in the fabled Black Belt. Rick Claybrook is the regional biologist.

Good areas for high-quality deer include Montgomery, Bullock and Macon counties.

Lowndes WMA, one of the better public hunting areas, is open to hunting under QDM. Claybrook acknowledged that the size of the area, only 11,000 acres, is a significant drawback, but added that they're going to buck-only hunts in January this year as a way to try to reduce the hunting pressure in the late season.

South4
The southwestern corner of the state has long had a heavy deer population. The counties there are Choctaw, Washington, Mobile, Clarke, Baldwin, Wilcox, Monroe, Conecuh and Escambia. Chuck Sharp is the biologist.

Generally speaking, the best buck hunting here will be found in the northernmost part of the district, such as in Clarke and Wilcox counties. Scotch is a solid choice for WMA deer hunts.

The southeastern corner of the state is made up of the counties of Butler, Covington, Crenshaw, Pike, Coffee, Geneva, Barbour, Dale, Henry and Houston. The district biologist covering this area is Bill Gray.

Barbour WMA is the old granddaddy of public lands for deer hunting in this zone. Its hunting seasons are open using QDM rules. In fact, it was the first WMA in the state to use such management techniques. Additionally the tract contains a wide variety of habitat types suitable for whitetails.

Good bets for private-land hunting are Barbour, Pike and Crenshaw counties -- all longtime buck producers in this neck of the woods.   

Find more about Alabama fishing and hunting at: AlabamaGameandFish.com