If there is a simple answer for determining the best trophy buck hunting in Pennsylvania, it is staring us right in the face when we look at the deer hunting regulations.

“If you based it on antler growth in yearlings, certainly those four-point areas would represent the best part of the state,” said Dr. Chris Rosenberry, “because the reason we have that four-point area out there is that’s what was needed in order to protect half the yearlings from harvest based on their antler growth. So I think it would be fair to say that in the western part of the state, those units that are in the four-point units are some of the better areas to grow white-tailed deer.”

Rosenberry, who has been with the Pennsylvania Game Commission five years, is head of the Deer Section.

Antler restrictions have almost precisely accomplished the goal of protecting half of the yearling bucks. Through the 2009-10 deer hunting seasons, 40 percent of the antlered bucks harvested were yearlings. Since 2003 the harvest has been between 49 and 56 percent.

According to Rosenberry, the four-point wildlife management units are our best deer habitat because of a combination of factors. These units, WMU 1B, WMU 1A, WMU 2D, WMU 2B and WMU 2A, are comparable to the habitat extending across the Upper Midwest: Habitat that has traditionally produced more trophy bucks than any other part of North America. Viewed from high above, this habitat has the characteristics of a patchwork quilt. The individual patches typically are crop fields, overgrown fields, wood lots, wetlands, and farms or small residential areas.

It is precisely this diversity that makes the four-point areas ideal for deer. Deer can almost always find something nutritious to eat.

Hunters typically consider trophy antlers to be the result of age, genetics and nutrition. In this initial assessment of our best trophy buck areas, age is not a consideration because the study of bucks for the purpose of determining antler restrictions looks strictly at 1 1/2-year-old animals.

Hunters often talk about genetics, even though relatively few of us have a deep understanding of the topic. Although genetics may be significant for owners of private deer herds, Rosenberry questions the importance of genetics where wild deer are concerned.

“In terms of trying to point to it regarding antler growth,” he said, “I think it’s difficult because there are so many uncontrollable variables out there. You look at the doe side, the females contributing genetics, there’s no way to select for good does or bad does or anything like that, so you have that constant mixing of good and bad genes for antlers and there’s not really a whole lot we can do on the female side to do anything about it.

“And on the buck side, the majority of our bucks get shot after the peak of the breeding season. That further dilutes any ability to try and alter the genetics in a wild deer herd.”

Even though the wildlife management units with four-point antler restrictions are in the western part of the state, Rosenberry doubts that there is much difference in the gene pool between those units and in other parts of the state to the east.

This information tells us that the western tier of wildlife management units, plus WMU 2D, comprise the best habitat in Pennsylvania for production of trophy bucks. This is further validated by recent additions to the Pennsylvania list of record whitetails.

Nowhere is the deer hunting tradition more a part of the very fabric of the state than in Pennsylvania. However, this tradition was built upon having good numbers of deer, specifically in the north-central “Big Woods,” particularly in the past when deer were scarce just about everywhere else. Pennsylvania has not been looked upon as a trophy buck state. Only 33 typical whitetails from Pennsylvania have scored more than 170 B&C points.

The trophy buck situation has been changing though. A large share of the best bucks ever taken in Pennsylvania, 13 of the 33 which scored at least 170 points, have been taken since 1990. Many reasons have been given for this. Perhaps the most likely reason is one not often mentioned: Deer have become more abundant in the areas which have the best habitat, particularly the western counties. Another telling figure is that 12 of the typical bucks which scored at least 170 points were taken by bowhunters, and seven of those have been taken since 2000, and seven have been taken in western four-point wildlife management units.

Although the buck harvest has fallen in Pennsylvania, hunting camps whose hunters work hard at patterning and hunting bucks can still put together a good-looking meat pole. Photo by Mike Bleech.

Your chances of getting a trophy buck in Pennsylvania have never been better than they are now.

Finding trophy bucks in the four-point wildlife management units is relatively easy when compared to any other large part of the state. However, none of the facts mentioned to this point mean that trophy bucks can not be found elsewhere, only that probably it will be more difficult to locate trophy bucks. Depending on what you want out of hunting, locating trophy bucks on the type of habitat that you prefer to hunt may be much more important than going where the odds are better. Maybe it is a simple matter of convenience or practicality: There are many advantages to hunting closer to home.