A combination of age, nutrition and genetics is required for bucks to grow to record size. Big-buck hunters know that locating areas where deer have multiple food sources, great cover and limited hunting pressure is the key to finding trophy bucks. In a state the size of New York, there are plenty of areas capable of growing such bucks, and the 2008 season produced plenty of them!

Here's our best advice on where to look for trophy bucks based on past success, as well as some insight about what's in store for hunters in 2009. (Note that all references to antler scores come from the Northeast Big Buck Club records, and represent the gross Boone and Crockett score.)

2008 SEASON REVIEW
Among the more than 105,000 bucks that Empire State hunters bagged last fall were some truly impressive trophies. According to the Northeast Big Buck Club (covering New York, Pennsylvania and New England), some impressive bucks fell in almost every county, including many that scored between 150 and 180 gross B&C.

According to Pete Grannis, New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) commissioner, the 2008 take included 105,747 adult bucks out of 222,979 total deer harvested. The buck take was up slightly from 104,451 in 2007, and well above 2006 (96,569) and 2005 (89,015) takes, suggesting that deer populations in many portions of New York are continuing to grow.

The perennial leader in buck take -- Steuben County -- retained its top position with a buck kill of 5,657 in 2007 and again in 2008 with 5,326.

The density of buck harvest reveals a more accurate picture of buck availability. By this calculation, the top counties for buck harvest density were: Yates (4.6 bucks per square mile), Allegany (4.2), Orange (3.8), Wyoming (3.7) and Steuben (3.7).

But huge bucks came from just about every corner of the state.

The largest buck of the 2007 season -- a new muzzleloader state record -- was killed in Niagara County by Keith LeVick and scored an amazing 231 2/8 gross and 221 0/8 net B&C as a 22-point non-typical. The largest gross-scoring buck of 2008 was a bow kill from Ontario County. Jon Aldrich took a massive non-typical 16-pointer scoring 179 5/8 gross and 173 3/8 net Pope and Young points.

Over the last three years, bucks scoring from 185 to 195 gross B&C points have been recorded in Wayne, Chautauqua, Oneida and Chemung counties, according to the NBBC.

Here's a look at what you might expect throughout the state in the upcoming season:

WESTERN NEW YORK
Western New York includes regions 7, 8 and 9 (and their corresponding wildlife management units), which stretch from the Interstate Route 81 corridor west to the shores of Lake Erie and the Niagara River.

In 2008, hunters took 55,577 bucks in western New York, compared with 2007 when hunters downed 57,140 bucks in all. The 2008 totals broke down as follows, with 2007 totals in parentheses: 17,407 (19,147) bucks in DEC Region 9's six counties; 20,620 (21,253) in the 11 counties of Region 8; and 17,500 (16,740) in the nine-county Region 7.

Only Region 7 showed improvement over the previous year. Steuben County was the buck harvest leader in the region and in the state at 5,657, or four bucks per square mile. Hunters traditionally do well in Allegheny, Cattaraugus, Chenango, Erie or Chautauqua counties, which typically are among the regions' leaders year after year.

Region 9 produced three of the top 10 buck harvests in the state in 2008 (Cattaraugus, Allegany, Chautauqua counties). Allegany County produced the most bucks per square mile in this region (4.2).