Typically, good hunting may be found in the Lake Champlain Valley in Clinton and Essex counties (WMU 5G). The deer herd there is growing, but has not reached the habitat's carrying capacity, so the deer are healthy and big.

Other areas for paying attention to include the southern Adirondack foothills in Saratoga and Fulton counties (WMU 5J), where the deer population is also growing and healthy.

Across most of the Northern Zone, deer densities are relatively low. Reported hunter kills are fewer than two bucks per mile in most management units, with the exception of Washington County (2.4) in Region 6 and Jefferson County (2.3) in Region 5.

This region produced 20,680 bucks in 2006 (versus 18,468 bucks in 2005), or 21 percent of the statewide harvest -- about the same percentage as in 2004 and 2005.

Good trophy areas include St. Lawrence County, which produced 3,763 bucks, the most in the region, in 2006. The bucks-per-square-mile ratio was only 1.3.

Jefferson and Washington counties offer better percentages of success. There, buck kills are over two per square mile, compared to fewer than one buck per square mile in many of this region's other counties.

Northern New York is the perfect place for trophy-buck hunters who aren't afraid to use a compass. It includes the vast -- and remote -- areas of regions 6 and 5.

Biologists point to Essex County as a place with good trophy-hunting prospects and lots of huntable land. The county has hundreds of thousands of forest-preserve acres open to hunting, and much of that land is accessible via trailheads that begin at the edge of major highways.

SOUTHEASTERN NEW YORK
This area includes regions 1, 3 and 4. The Catskills, Hudson Valley and Long Island typically produce about 25 percent of the statewide buck kill.

Orange, Delaware and Otsego counties ranked one, two, three in regional buck-kill standings for the 2006 season, and stood in the top three in 2005. Orange County's final count of 2,988 bucks was the state's seventh-best, while Delaware County ranked eighth (with 2,847 bucks). Otsego County was ranked tenth statewide, with 2,758 bucks.

Columbia and Orange Counties had the region's best bucks-per-square-mile ratio, at 2.6 and 3.2 respectively.

The trophy hunt at the 10,000-acre West Point Military Reservation in Orange County remains one of the most innovative in the state. To take advantage of West Point's thriving deer herd, hunters must possess a deer management permit for Wildlife Management Unit 3P. And the permit-holder must tag a doe before shooting a buck on the premises.

To learn more about the hunt, call Jim Beemer, the post's wildlife manager, at (845) 938-2857.

Delaware County produced a relatively large number of bucks, but only 1.9 bucks per square mile in 2006, well down from 3.1 of just a few years ago.

Prime public-hunting areas here include the 7,400-acre Bear Spring Mountain Wildlife Management Area north of Shinhopple via Trout Brook Road.

Dutchess County produced the state's best buck during the 2003 season: a 197 5/8-inch gross B&C 20-point non-typical for gun hunter Scott Soterion -- and in 2005, a great archery buck, scoring 162 7/8 gross B&C, for Peter Cilione.

In southern New York, Westchester County remains a great option for bowhunters, who took 596 bucks last year. That's up slightly from 2005, but down from 638 in 2004.

Open to archers only, the county has produced more archery trophies than any other in the state.

Long Island's Suffolk County has an archery-only hunt that runs usually from the beginning of November through Dec. 31, followed by a brief shotgun hunt in mid-January.