"Some permit areas are nearly all private land, and some other permit areas have a high percentage of public land, but it's a very productive area for deer and we have good annual recruitment," Naplin said.

Like each of Minnesota's top B&C counties, this area is located in the "transition zone" between forestland and prairie.

"We have interspersed agricultural lands with the wooded forest lands that make for ideal deer habitat, as well as a lot of timber management that provides good deer habitat," Naplin said.

His best advice for trophy hunters in his area is to make the extra effort with scouting and getting off the beaten path.

"Get off the traveled areas and you'll have a better opportunity to be able to harvest a trophy animal," Naplin said.

LAC QUI PARLE WMA
Looking at the top trophy locations reveals a few common connections, and among those is the presence of a significant system of river valleys. The section around Lac qui Parle is just such an area where big bucks have plenty of places to hide out while also having tremendous access to food sources.

"We have the habitat here to get deer to 4 or 5 years of age," said Dave Trauba, the DNR's wildlife manager for the LQP WMA.

The LQP river valley provides a large, continuous habitat base of managed land with bottomland forest among native prairie blocks, large cattail sloughs and over 3,000 acres of cropland.

"We have some sanctuary areas, private land and nature conservancy land where there's no hunting pressure, and deer on those plots can grow to be pretty old, but those bucks will wander off that land and give somebody an opportunity to harvest one," Trauba said.

The land around LQP is truly a diamond in the rough because the bucks in the surrounding area have very little area to hide out. Most of the surrounding area is composed of large tracts of cropland with scattered wood lots.

Traub said LQP WMA is hardly a secret to deer hunters, and he said he would characterize the pressure as being "moderate to heavy" throughout the season. The LQP WMA is over 34,000 acres in size, and with 86 parking spots, offers hunters a tremendous amount of access. Still, there are sections where few hunters have ventured throughout the years.

"What I've noticed is that a lot of people don't get far from the parking lot," Traub said. "From a deer hunter's standpoint, there are a lot of opportunities for those who want to go farther in by boat or on foot."

THE NORTH SHORE
Given the mild winters over the last decade, the North Shore area of Minnesota should have some hearty bucks with nicely developed racks. Harsh winters take a toll on the deer population, especially on bucks that are weary from the rut. Those that survive the winter are usually so stressed out that their racks do not have much opportunity to develop because of nutritional problems throughout the winter and spring.

"We had another mild winter last year and productivity has been great, so there are some big animals up here," said Bob Kirsch, the DNR's wildlife manager for the Two Harbors area.

There is plenty of private land along the North Shore, some of which doesn't receive any hunting pressure. Hunters willing to knock on a few doors can gain permission to hunt these areas without too much problem.

Kirsch's area is much larger than that of most other wildlife managers around the state because his region is sparsely populated by humans. As a result, much of his area doesn't have many roads, especially side roads.

"Most people hunt in close proximity to the roads, and if you can get away from them into an area where you locate scrapes and other buck sign, then that's a good place to be," Kirsch said.