Joseph D. Hendrix had the sixth largest buck scored, a 149 2/8 buck taken in Chesterfield County in November of 2005. The seventh largest was a 147 5/8 Calhoun County buck taken by William Dowd in November of 2004. Spartanburg County racked up the No. 8 buck with a 146 2/8 rack taken by Scott Blackwell in October of 2004. Andy Stanley took the No. 9 B&C buck in September of 2003 in Colleton County that scored an even 148 B&C.

Finishing the top 10 was a 144 7/8 buck taken by Jason Fogle in Orangeburg County in December 2005.

There were only four non-typical bucks scored that made the record book in 2006. The Lusk and Wannamaker bucks discussed earlier were Nos. 1 and 2 in the non-typical list. The third was a 159 1/8 Orangeburg County non-typical taken by Sanford Blocker in October of 2005. The fourth non-typical was a 152 7/8 Spartanburg buck taken by Jamie Tillman in November 2004.

To continue the analysis of looking at individual bucks harvested, let's examine the counties where the top 10 bucks of all time were taken from each of the typical and non-typical categories. In the typical, there were no repeat counties. Beginning with the No. 1 buck through No. 10 of all time, the counties producing the bucks, in order, are Pickens, Calhoun, Williamsburg, Marion, Hampton, Laurens, Sumter, Saluda, Newberry and Greenwood.

For the non-typical list, we do have repeats. This can be a significant tidbit of information for trophy hunters. Beginning with No. 1 of all-time non-typicals, the country ranking is Beaufort, Edgefield, McCormick, McCormick, Lexington, Anderson, Anderson, Orangeburg, Chesterfield and Marlboro. Both McCormick and Anderson counties account for two each in this list.

Now let's look at the top counties for score year 2006 in terms of producing the most trophy bucks for the scoring sessions. Ruth has some specific comments about the first five.

"For score year 2006, Orangeburg County produced the most state-record entries with 12. Other top counties include Calhoun with 11, Aiken with 10, Chesterfield with eight and Anderson with seven entries. These results come as no surprise, particularly in the case of Aiken, Anderson and Orangeburg, as these counties have historically produced good numbers of record entries," Ruth said.

Another highly useful way of studying the data Ruth has collected is to consider the all-time historical rankings of the counties. For the 2006 information, Ruth has broken it into two distinct rankings. The first is the simple total number of deer harvested in each county. The second ranking is the rank per square mile of county size. This is the most revealing in terms of really comparing one county with another. We'll take a look at both lists.

The No. 1 trophy-producing county in terms of numbers of deer since the data has been compiled is Orangeburg County with a whopping 334 bucks that made the state book. There were 324 typical and 10 non-typical included in this listing. In second is Aiken County with a total of 268 racks, 263 of which were typical and five non-typical. In third was Fairfield County with a total of 227 bucks on the record list. Of these, 221 were typical and six non-typical.