Another way he breaks down the information is to provide the data in terms of Hunt Year. For our purposes here, that will mean the listing of all the bucks taken in the 2004 hunt season.

Then there's the all-time historical list that will enable you to study where the data from 1974 until the present time indicates where big bucks have been produced. With three different ways to view/study the data, you can better make determinations where you need to focus your time and effort if you're serious about harvesting a trophy buck.

We'll begin with the Hunt Year data that considers where the big bucks taken in 2004 were harvested. We'll look at the top two bucks in the typical and non-typical categories first, then the data will be considered on a county-by-county basis so you can focus your search to relatively small areas.

"The top typical buck taken in 2004 scored 149 6/8 points and was harvested by Clifford Rickett in Oconee County last November. The second highest score was 148 1/8 in Orangeburg County in November and was taken by William Jones. Delton Roe's 187 4/8-point Anderson County buck, taken in October of 2004, was tops among non-typical deer and this buck will also qualify for the Boone and Crockett Club's Three Year Awards Period List. The No. 2 non-typical was taken by Jeff Dennis in Colleton County in October 2004 and scored 154 5/8 points," Ruth said.

The top-producing county in South Carolina, by a wide margin, for Hunt Year 2004 state record-book entries was Aiken County with 14 qualifying bucks. Aiken was a strong third in the 2003 listing with 11 record-book bucks taken that year. That's a total of 25 in the past two years, best in the state.

CAROLINA'S TOP TROPHY COUNTIES (2004 Hunt Year)
County	Trophies*
1. Ailen	14
2. Colleton	6
2. Lexington	6
4. Anderson	5
4. Orangeburg	5
4. Dorchester	5
8. Kershaw	4
8. Summer	4
10. Bamberg	3
10. Barnwell	3
10. Calhoun	3
10. Fairfield	3
10. Horry	3
10. Laurens	3
10. Lee	3
10. Newberry	3
10. Spartenburg	3
*Minimum size of buck entry into the South Carolina Trophy deer book is 125 Boone and Crockett points for typical racks and 145 points for non-typical racks.

There was a tie for second place with Colleton and Lexington counties having six record-book bucks each. Beyond that, there was a four-way tie for fourth with Abbeville, Anderson, Dorchester and Orangeburg all having five record-book bucks. Tied for Eighth place were Kershaw and Sumter counties with four entries each.

Rounding out the top 10 was a long list of counties tied with three record-book bucks each. The counties included Bamberg, Barnwell, Calhoun, Fairfield, Horry, Laurens, Lee, Newberry and Spartanburg.

Remember, this listing is for bucks taken during the past 2004 hunting season. As noted, many big bucks are being taken from numerous different areas. That's really good news.

The Score Year Top Ten list includes all the bucks scored in 2005, which includes the above list, plus any others that were brought to a scoring session for the first time last year, even though they were killed in previous years. Most of the additional bucks are generally from recent years, so it's still a good method to help analyze where big bucks are being taken.

Aiken County again leads this listing with a whopping 21 bucks scored that made the record book. All 21 of these bucks were typical bucks. The second place county was Orangeburg with a total of 11 bucks and again, all of these were typical.

Third place went to Kershaw County with 10 record-book bucks. Of this total, nine were typical and one was non-typical. Lexington County finished fourth with a total of eight record-book bucks, all but one of which was a typical set of antlers.