The fact of the matter is that regulation changes over the last decade have actually taken some of the pressure off tagging bucks to the point where 59 percent of last year's harvest were antlerless deer. Rewind to 1990, and the number of antlerless deer was only 46 percent of the annual harvest.

"Whether that's detectable by the hunting public or not is hard to say, but we are saving more bucks today than before," Cornicelli said.

While many members of MDHA say they would love the chance to kill more trophy deer, they consider the subject to be secondary to issues such as land access and passing the dedicated funding legislation.

"We are working more with overall landscape schemes to acquire more public lands and create programs where private landowners can open their land to the public," Johnson said.

TROPHY AREAS
Since 2000, the county with the most Boone and Crockett Club non-typical and typical trophy bucks combined was Morrison with eight -- six typicals and two non-typicals. Wabasha, Otter Tail and Todd counties tied for second with seven trophies each. Wabasha had three typicals and four non-typicals, Otter Tail had five typicals and two non-typicals, and Todd had one typical and six non-typicals. The next top counties were Chisago with six trophy bucks, Houston with five, Winona with four, and Fillmore and Pine with three each.

Map those counties out and you have three distinctive areas of the state. Otter Tail, Todd and Morrison counties are all adjacent to each other in west-central Minnesota. Wabasha, Houston, Winona and Fillmore are adjacent to each other and form the southeastern corner of Minnesota. The last pocket is Chisago and Pine counties, which run along the east-central border with Wisconsin.

Nationally, Minnesota has been one of the top locations for both typical and non-typical deer over the last 10 years. The state ranked 11th nationally in the typical category with 75 bucks registered and 10th in the non-typical category with 41 trophies registered. So it should come as little surprise that these top counties are also among those listed in the top permit areas.

Examining the number of trophy bucks officially registered is one way to evaluate the best areas of the state, but whether or not it is the best method is debatable. Nobody knows for sure, but it is believed that anywhere from a third to half of all trophy bucks taken by hunters are never registered. That's a large discrepancy in numbers.

Perhaps the best places with trophy potential are those on the fringes of urban areas. The term "suburb" has typically been used to describe this area, but as cities sprawl outward, that term doesn't necessarily mean areas large enough to hunt in. The newest term being thrown around is "exurban," which means outlying suburbs on the edge between the urban core and surrounding rural area. This includes those areas around the Twin Cities, of course, but also areas around Duluth, Rochester, New Ulm, Red Wing, Mankato and Granite Falls.

"There are a lot of big deer to be taken in these exurban areas, but hunting is limited to archery in most of those areas due to discharge restrictions," Cornicelli said.

The Boone and Crockett numbers showed that the southeast corner is a high-quality area to hunt, but there are more places to go than just the four counties listed. Cornicelli said he typically works check stations in the southeastern corner of the state each year and sees plenty of very nice deer.

This author did some additional homework to find some "hidden gems" for trophy whitetails this season that may not receive as much pressure as the better known locations. This homework included digging through the numbers, chatting with DNR officials, reading various online message boards and listening to simple anecdotal evidence from fellow hunters. It is by no means a guarantee. That said, the following three areas have tremendous potential to yield trophy bucks this season -- whether it be with luck or with hard work.

PARK RAPIDS AREA
In Hubbard County, the area around Park Rapids is very similar in nature to that of those top-ranked counties previously mentioned. This area may not prominently appear on the B&C list, but it is a very productive area for big deer. One of the biggest benefits of this area is that it includes some large stands of undisturbed public land -- areas perfect for big bucks that are accessible to those hunters willing to move past the crowds.

"I've personally worked some check stations over the years and seen some really nice bucks come through the registration station both from public and private lands," said Rob Naplin, the DNR's Park Rapids area wildlife manager.

The permit areas in Naplin's area include 243, 244, 245, 251, 298, 246 and 172.