Killing a trophy-class whitetail buck is one of the greatest achievements in outdoor sports. Rare creatures to begin with, they certainly don't attain trophy status by running at full tilt toward every grunt call they hear. A perfect storm of factors must come together to produce a trophy buck -- and then the hunter has the unenviable task of somehow outwitting one of the best opponents that nature can field against the human predator.

Just as very few high school athletes are blessed with the inborn speed, strength and agility to become an All-SEC running back, only a relatively small number of white-tailed deer carry the antler genes necessary to rate enrollment in the Boone and Crockett Club's all-time record book. However, even as a natural running back needs to work hard in a nurturing environment to achieve maximum results, a buck genetically programmed to grow a breathtakingly symmetrical rack of mammoth proportions won't end up as a hunter's trophy unless many other elements fall into place.

The buck must live in an area with good habitat and plenty of forage, be part of a healthy herd structure (to prevent excessive competition), and possess either the smarts or the luck to avoid getting plastered on the highway as well a keen ability to avoid hunters and other predators. When all of these influences are in play, a trophy rack results.

As mentioned previously, Georgia is fortunate among Southeastern states to have more than its share of deer represented on B&C's list of bucks taken by gun hunters, and the Pope & Young Club list for bowhunters. Considering the minimum score required to make those record books, it obviously takes a special animal even to get on the list, much less score near the top. A score of 170 points is required to make B&C as a typical rack; for non-typical racks, the minimum score is 195. For bowhunters' kills to make P&Y's all-time records, a typical rack must score 125 points, a non-typical 155. Not that many bucks out there carry around those kinds of credentials to start with, and if you manage to outwit one, you've accomplished something and deserve recognition.

Every year, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources teams with Georgia Sportsman and the Georgia Outdoor Writers Association sponsor the Georgia Big Deer Contest to recognize hunters who have taken a trophy deer in the state. The four categories in the contest mirror the record books, with categories for non-typical and typical racks for both gun and bow kills.

Past performance is often a solid predictor of future success, so Georgians intent on harvesting a record-book deer this coming season will do well to take note of the areas of the state that consistently produce big deer. It's not that lightning can't strike anywhere in Georgia: It can, and does. But certain areas provide the highest likelihood of crossing paths with a trophy deer.

Of our 159 counties, 50 have produced deer for the all-time B&C record books, so the chances of seeing a trophy deer are not limited to just a few areas of the state. And 20 percent of those, the top five counties overall for producing trophies -- Macon, Colquitt, Worth, Dooly and Jasper -- have given up 28 percent of the whitetails on the all-time B&C list.