Oakmulgee WMA was the No. 1 WMA for buck harvest in the state last year for the second straight year. The region's other top WMAs are Mulberry Fork at No. 5 and Cahaba River in the sixth spot.

A hunter could spend an entire season hunting those three areas, as the hunts on them are usually staggered so that one is open every weekend of the season.

"All three are good," Cook confirmed. "Cahaba River probably doesn't have the deer numbers that the other two have, but the bucks that come from it are very nice quality."

The rut is staggered on the areas too. The Oakmulgee bucks rut in mid to late December. It's a New Year's rut for Mulberry Fork and a little later in January for Cahaba River, Cook noted.

Good private-land buck spots in this region can be found in Pickens, Greene and Tuscaloosa counties.

The east-central part of the state falls in District 4, and also offers good buck hunting. The counties in this region are Coosa, Tallapoosa, Chambers, Autauga, Elmore, Macon, Lee, Russell, Bullock, Montgomery and Lowndes.

Lowndes, Bullock, Macon and Montgomery are among the best anywhere in the state.

Lowndes WMA is biologist Rick Claybrook's pick as a top buck area. It's one of the state's smaller WMAs, at around 11,000 acres, but gave up 33 bucks of 2 1/2 years or older last year.

The North
The northeast corner of the state in District 2 includes Jackson, Marshall, DeKalb, Cherokee, Etowah, Blount, St. Clair, Calhoun, Cleburne, Randolph, Clay and Talladega counties. Randy Liles is the supervising biologist.

While Choccolocco WMA is known for producing lots of deer, the number of bucks checked here last season wasn't particularly high. The James D. Martin-Skyline WMA in trophy-rich Jackson County is probably the better choice for buck hunters.

The opening weekend and either-sex hunt in December are known to produce nice whitetails. Parts of Jackson County -- and even parts of the WMA -- have a traditional January rut, while other parts are known to have a late December rut.

Jackson County is year in and year out an outstanding private land trophy producer.

The northwest section of the state composes District 1, including Lauderdale, Limestone, Madison, Colbert, Franklin, Lawrence, Morgan, Cullman, Winston, Marion, Lamar, Fayette and Walker counties. Ron Eakes is the biologist here.

Sam R. Murphy WMA near Guin is in the top five WMAs in the state for both overall deer harvest and for buck harvest. A ton of 2 1/2-year-old bucks were taken at Murphy last year.

Freedom Hills is another good buck producer in the northwestern corner of the state, with hunters taking more than 50 bucks last year. It has quality deer rules, and Eakes likes the age structure that it's providing for the herd.

The bucks on Freedom Hills WMA, which lies in southwestern Colbert County, typically have a late rut that falls in January.