Both of these stores also have the season-long permits that all hunters must possess while afield. Other sporting goods outlets in the Pell City area have those permits as well. Plus, they may be ordered by sending a self-addressed and stamped envelope, along with your license numbers, to the Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Office, 4101 State Route 21 North, Jacksonville, AL 36265.

This little piece of ground coughed up nearly twice as many deer as were registered at Autauga. A total of 95 were killed in 2,600 man-days of hunting, with two of three taken by riflemen. St. Clair, in fact, was second only to Demopolis WMA, with 9.8 deer taken per square mile during the 2003-04 season.

In those days, budding and veteran hunters alike simply hunted hoof prints - rarely seeing what left them - or depended upon dogs to strike a trail and push the deer to them. God only knows how many squirrels I lugged out of what were then U.S. Steel's vast land holdings. There were so few whitetails, however, that every deer had a name.

The formerly strip-mined land between Oak Grove and the Johns communities was my close-to-home hunting place. Daddy did often take me to Sumter County, part of the deer-rich Black Belt, on weekends. During school-break weekdays, however, my best buddy Poncho and I piled into a neighbor's pickup to be driven to the foothills of Sealy Ann Mountain.

We rarely saw a deer, and we never shot one. But we still enjoyed the times of our lives - dreaming, plotting and becoming acquainted with every rock, road, bush and tree.

Folks have it much easier nowadays. Access to this land is no longer free, but it costs only $15 for a WMA license for the hunting rights, and stalk hunters have the run of it a dozen or more times in January alone.

U.S. Steel has since become USX Corporation, which has turned over the management of the land to the DWFF. All acreage west of the Warrior River, spanning portions of Tuscaloosa and Walker counties, is known as the Mulberry Fork WMA. East of the river lies the West Jefferson Public Hunting Area. Each exceeds 40,000 acres in size, and both are now teeming with deer.

The only difference between the two is that Mulberry Fork is an all-out WMA, complete with check station, food plots and very specific regulations and hunt dates, while West Jefferson is more like the Autauga and St. Clair CHAs, only bigger and better!

Instead of two days a week, as is the case at Autauga and St. Clair, riflemen have three days to hunt West Jefferson - Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Since there is no check station, hunters are not required to pick up the daily permit during the gun days. If you have state and WMA hunting licenses, all that remains is to possess a season-long permit - the same required of bowhunters at all the state's WMAs. Those are available at numerous country stores and sporting goods retailers between Fairfield and Oak Grove.

It sure wouldn't hurt to call ahead first, however. I once had to visit five places that normally have the permits before I could get one. It would have been far simpler to order one by mail. The address for that is: Supervising Wildlife Biologist, P.O. Box 305, Northport, AL 35476. Include a large, self-addressed stamped envelope and your current hunting license numbers with your request.

West Jefferson is actually split into two portions, Zones A and B. The latter is all the property south of County Road 36, which pretty much covers the North Johns and Sumter communities.

As this PHA is so close to three metropolitan areas - less than an hour from downtown Birmingham, and not much farther from Tuscaloosa and Jasper - West Jefferson draws a lot of hunters. It's second only to the Freedom Hills WMA for man-days invested in the pursuit of deer.

Last year, it yielded 164 deer to 9,375 man-days of hunting. Firearms hunters bagged 120, 34 went to bowhunters and 10 to blackpowder marksmen. That equates to a lot of hunters going home empty-handed, but you must consider the size of the place and the less restrictive hunting there.

On smaller tracts, an abundance of hunters can keep the deer on the move, thus they are seen and shot. On a large tract like West Jefferson, however, hunter traffic is more dispersed. Since the opportunities aren't limited to a few weekends a year, the number of hunters at any given moment on the tract is smaller. Thus, the deer are more nocturnal and less apt to be pushed into someone's crosshairs.

But don't despair. Those who hunt the place in January have no trouble locating buck sign. Almost every old logging road that skirts or crosses a ridge has a scrape. Every power line - even the little ones used to carry a line to a coal bed methane pump - is ringed by rubs.

If you get off the main road and do some walking, you find plenty of places to sit or hang a stand. After that, the rest depends upon Lady Luck. Just be sure to have a friend to call or a deer cart in your truck in case she smiles on you. The hollows on the property become Alabama's own Grand Canyon when you are lugging a deer across or out of them.

To this point, we've covered three public tracts that have great appeal for riflemen. There is a fourth, however, where guns are not allowed. Since even archers as a rule are kept out until December 27 each year, the month of January offers some prime deer hunting in mostly undisturbed acreage.

Seven Mile Island WMA is in Lauderdale County near Florence. The smallest of the bunch featured, this 4,685-acre tract is primarily a great place for waterfowl and small game hunts. Very few bowhunters even take advantage of the month-long opportunity for deer in January.

The total man-days for 2003-04 amounted to 200, which was half the previous year's tally. For their efforts archers arrowed 14 deer between December 27 and January 31 - about the same number taken in 2002-03, but with half the effort. The good news about the hunting is that the number of man/days needed to harvest a deer is the lowest in the state. The bad news is that only walk-in hunting is allowed.

A season permit may be obtained by writing Area Biologist Daniel Toole at P.O. Box 1314, Florence, AL 35631, or by calling him at (256) 353-2634. When writing, enclose a SASE. The permits are also available at the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge outside Decatur, the Lauderdale County Courthouse, and at some bait and tackle shops in Florence.

There is no check station, but all deer taken by bowhunters must be recorded on a report sheet at the area's entrance gate.