This is the lowest percentage play in Texas deer hunting if you want to hold out for a quality animal. But the average buck you see, and you may only see a handful in a week of hunting, will be larger than you'll see virtually anywhere else in the state.

The counties with the highest deer population are those bordering Oklahoma, from the Red River to the northeast tip of the Panhandle.

Even there, quality of deer habitat can vary widely. If you're hunting with an outfitter, ask lots of questions about how much land he has, what kind of terrain, how he hunts it and how many hunters he takes each year.

EAST TEXAS
While the Pineywoods has produced fewer big bucks the last couple of years, there are pockets where savvy hunters continue to find some eye-poppers.

One of those was the big non-typical buck that Jimmy Cochran shot in Trinity County. That buck nets 196 2/8 B&C.; Houston and Montgomery counties both produced 180-class non-typical bucks this season.

TBGA TOP WHITETAILS OF 2004
Net Score	Hunter	County
Typical Whitetail Bucks
189 0/8	Bill Glendering	Frio
187 2/8	Lloyd R. French IV	Atascosa
182 6/8	Stuart Stechman	Dimmitt
178 2/8	Leighton A. Wier	La Salle
177 5/8	John Friesenhahan	Atascosa
175 4/8	Tommy Lee Hill Jr.	Reagan
175 2/8	Chris Glaser	Milam
174 2/8	Donnie B. Seay	Maverick
174 1/8	Jerry Griffin	Webb
171 7/8	John Meyer	Webb
171 6/8	Kirk M. Folsom	McMullen
Non-Typical Whitetail Bucks
226 7/8	Hunt Allred	Collingsworth
211 0/8	Mike Sanchez Jr.	Webb
210 4/8	John B. Smart	La Salle
209 7/8	Brad Penny	Kerr
201 5/8	Arthur Koehler	McMullen
199 1/8	Larry F. Wright	Kimble
196 5/8	Ike C. Sugg	Irion
196 2/8	Jimmy Cochran	Trinity
195 5/8	Allan J. Rusmussen	Menard
192 4/8	Alfred Kinda	Atascosa
192 3/8	Mark D. Purcell II	Matador
192 2/8	Frank J. Tilicek III	Maverick
Results courtesy of Texas Big Game Awards Program.

As proof that big bucks are now showing up everywhere, Matagorda County produced a non-typical scoring 192 3/8 for Mark D. Purcell II.

"In the Post Oak, which is Region 5, they've killed some really good deer off low fence property," Brimager said. "For example, in Milam County there was a huge buck scoring in the 200s killed. That's another one that's not been entered in our contest. And I know of another 190-class buck from Region 5. There are some really good bucks coming from some of those big river bottoms."

Allan Grant shot one of the Post Oak's top bucks of 2004 in Anderson County. One of those animals that the scoring system doesn't treat fairly, Grant's buck grosses 191 3/8 but nets just 173 3/8.

CROSS TIMBERS
The Cross Timbers, which produced some huge bucks a few years back, did not have many top-end bucks this season. However, Cooke County, which has been something of a sleeper, produced 183 and 175 net non-typicals.

Throughout our state, management for big deer is the rule rather than the exception. Landowners of from 100 to 100,000 acres are providing supplemental feed year 'round, studying genetics, trying to remove inferior deer, cutting brush and planting food plots, all in pursuit of those extra inches of antler -- the difference between big bucks and really big bucks!

Those management tactics don't apply only to ranches behind 8 feet of "deer-proof" fence. Where decades ago Texas might not produce a 200-class buck but once in a decade, now every region of Texas produces deer that size almost every season.

So how does all this bode for 2005?

Frankly, it bodes well. There's no reason to even imagine that this coming season could equal, much less match, 2004 for huge bucks. For one thing, 1998 -- when this year's mature bucks were born -- was a relatively poor year, with much drier conditions, so that year's fawn crop won't match the ones born in 1997.

But great carryover, a decent winter and prime spring conditions should put those mature bucks in prime condition. And prime body condition means big antlers.

There are no sure things in hunting big bucks, even in Texas -- except that you'll never collect that muy grande by sitting at home in the recliner!