While the countywide numbers were listed above for those counties in the overall top 10, let's take a look at the top 10 counties with WMA harvest only. Many hunters do not have access to quality private lands and are often seeking public lands where plenty of birds are harvested. Obviously, the areas with the highest harvest are areas being hunted. But often you can get a bit off the beaten path, plus extend your hunting through late in the season, and be able to enjoy quality hunting on public lands.

The No. 1 county, by a wide margin, for WMA hunting was Oconee County, with 171 turkeys harvested. The No. 2 counties were tied at 130: McCormick and Union. The fourth-best WMA county was Pickens with 75 turkeys harvested and was closely followed by Edgefield in fifth place with 74 turkeys harvested on WMAs.

The sixth best county was a tie between Abbeville County and Chester County with 49 turkeys each. The No. 8 slot belonged to Aiken County with a WMA harvest of 44 turkeys and in ninth place was Laurens with 39 turkeys harvested. The 10th best WMA by county was Fairfield County with a harvest of 32 turkeys.

The listings of "overall county" and "county WMA" harvests contain some overlap. You can be sure that the hunting on both the private and WMA lands will be good if you find the same counties listed in both categories.

While on the subject of harvest on a statewide basis in 2004, there were 61 bearded hens harvested in the 2004 season. While that is still a small percentage of the overall harvest, it's probably a higher number than most hunters would expect. Certainly unusual, bearded hens are not rare and there are apparently a respectable number of bearded hens in the woods.

Other than simply harvesting a long-bearded gobbler, turkey hunters certainly like to compare the physical characteristics of turkeys harvested. The three dominant trophy-measuring characteristics are body weight, beard length and spur length. Body weight and beard length are the most commonly discussed; however, to veteran hunters, the spur length is the key, as it is better linked to the age of the gobbler.

We'll look at all three and name the areas of the state that lead in these categories.

Anderson County is the No. 1 area in terms of producing the heaviest gobblers on a county-by-county basis. Anderson County gobblers averaged a whopping 19.37 pounds in the 2004 season. A 19-pound-plus bird is excellent size anywhere in the state, but to average in excess of that for a countywide area is really outstanding.

The No. 2 county, Cherokee County was another upstate area and was not far behind with an average weight of 19.27 pounds per gobbler. These were the only two counties averaging more than 19 pounds per adult gobbler harvested.

In third place we drop to the southern end of the state to Beaufort County where the average adult gobbler was 18.80 pounds. This is still a big average weight, but about a half pound less per bird than the top two counties, to put their numbers in better perspective. The No. 4 county was another upstate area, Chester, with an average of 18.74 pounds per bird. In fifth place -- yet another upstate area in case you're homing in on a pattern here -- Pickens County with an average of 18.70 pounds per adult bird.

The county with the sixth heaviest average weight was Calhoun with an average weight of 18.59 pounds, and in seventh there was a tie with Oconee and Saluda counties, with an average weight of 18.52 pounds per gobbler. Abbeville County was ninth with an 18.48-pound-per-bird average. The final entry into the top 10 by weight was Fairfield with an average of 18.43 pounds per gobbler.