"It's not uncommon for two or three of those guys to kill nine to 12 deer with archery equipment in two weeks of hunting," he said.

Cook suggested people who have not hunted on the WMAs in a while should look into it again.

"There's a perception that the areas are really crowded, but they're not as crowded today as they were 10 or 20 years ago," he said. "If you have 100 hunters who turn out for a hunt on 40,000 acres of WMA land, that hunter density is still far less than it is on many hunting clubs."

Hunters who want to do well on a WMA hunt have to do more than just show up, Gray cautioned.

"You can't get there 20 minutes before daylight and expect to go out and be successful," he pointed out. "The main keys, in my experience, are to find out where the deer are holding and what they're feeding on. Figure out where the pressure is going to be and try to use that to your advantage."

With that said, here are the biologists' picks for the top deer spots in the state for the coming season.

NORTH ALABAMA
Ron Eakes is the DWFF biologist in the northwestern corner of the state, covering the counties of Colbert, Cullman, Fayette, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison, Marion, Morgan, Walker and Winston.

He likes the area hard against the Mississippi state line as the top counties for deer numbers in his district. His picks are Colbert, Fayette, Lamar and Walker.

"Deer numbers are excellent in those counties," he said.

The district has three good WMAs for hunters to try -- Lauderdale near Waterloo, Freedom Hills near Cherokee and Sam R. Murphy in Marion and Lamar counties.

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2004-05 DEER HARVEST ON ALABAMA'S TOP 20 WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREAS
Rank	Area	Gun	Archery	Blackpowder	Total
1	Skyline	308	39	34	381
2	Blue Spring	180	130	17	327
3	Choccolocco	223	68	31	322
4	Barbour	234	34	4	272
5	Sam R. Murphy	211	51	N/A	262
6	Mulberry Fork	117	125	18	260
7	Oakmulgee	120	90	46	256
8	Covington	131	74	1	206
9	Lowndes	106	95	N/A	201
10	West Jefferson	130	48	10	188
11	Hollins	94	76	14	184
12	Freedom Hills	131	45	N/A	146
13	Lauderdale	139	25	N/A	164
14	Cahaba River	84	60	8	152
15	Coosa	85	64	1	150
16	Black Warrior	127	20	0	147
17	Little River	71	41	31	143
18	St. Clair	72	61	N/A	133
19	Wolf Creek	74	56	N/A	130
20	Jackson Waterfowl	N/A	120	N/A	120

The habitat in the district is varied, with some mountainous land, some open valley land and some pine timber operations.

Across the state in the northeastern corner, Keith McCutcheon is the DWFF biologist. His region covers Blount, Calhoun, Cherokee, Clay, Cleburne, DeKalb, Etowah, Jackson, Marshall, Randolph, St. Clair and Talladega counties.

"You can go right back to those same counties that we pick every year," McCutcheon said. "They're still the counties that have the most deer in our district and include Randolph, Clay, Calhoun and Talladega."

Choccolocco WMA continues to rank as one of the top public areas in the state in number of deer killed.

"Choccolocco is changing a little," McCutcheon cautioned. "The numbers are still there, but the quality is improving too."

CENTRAL ALABAMA
The central portion of Alabama -- most notably those counties that are part of the fertile "Black Belt" -- continues to be perhaps the premier destination in the state for deer hunting, both for numbers of deer and high quality animals.

Rick Claybrook is the biologist in charge of the east-central Alabama region, made up of the counties of Autauga, Bullock, Chambers, Coosa, Elmore, Lee, Lowndes, Macon, Montgomery, Russell and Tallapoosa.

"Overall, the entire district has pretty good deer numbers," Claybrook mused. "All the counties are real good."

Pressed for his picks as the top deer counties, he likes Russell, Macon and South Montgomery.

"There's not as much agriculture in these areas as there used to be, but there's plenty of woods and the habitat is good," Claybrook said.

For a public land destination, he likes Lowndes County WMA.