Last month we focused on the best places in Louisiana to score on a deer in the regions whose populations were highest; this month our attention turns to locations, plus tips and tactics for taking a trophy Louisiana buck.

DEFINING LOUISIANA'S TROPHY WHITETAILS
The criteria for trophy bucks worthy of enrollment in the Louisiana Big Game Records are, explained LBGR chairman David Moreland, identical to those of the measuring systems established by the Boone and Crockett and Pope & Young awards programs. The Longhunter Society, which scores and records only bucks killed with a muzzleloader, also uses the B&C measuring system to rank trophy whitetails.

Minimum standards for white-tailed deer trophies to be listed in the Louisiana Big Game Records are as follow:

• Modern Firearms: 160 typical B&C points or 185 non-typical points.
• Archery: 110 typical B&C points or 130 non-typical B&C points.
• Muzzleloader: 120 typical B&C points or 150 non-typical points.

For more information regarding the Louisiana Big Game Records and trophy whitetail hunting in Louisiana, you can contact David Moreland at his e-mail address, outdoor_roots@ hotmail.com.

The Louisiana Big Game Records can be downloaded from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries' Web site, which is found at www.wlf.louisiana.gov/hunting/biggamehunts.

According to Moreland, the LDWF has initiated a deer registry for youth hunters. Hunters ages 15 years old or younger can register their deer, buck or doe, large or small, with the LDWF, which will recognize these youth hunters, and especially those who may have killed their first deer. This registry is on the department Web site -- www.wlf.louisiana.gov-- on the page containing the Louisiana Big Game Records.

Maps of our state's wildlife management areas can be obtained at the LDWF headquarters on Quail Drive or any LDWF district office. They can also be downloaded from Internet at www.wlf.louisiana.gov.

For season dates, rules and regulations for deer hunting on public lands, consult the current edition of the Louisiana Hunting and Wildlife Management Area Regulations booklet.

WHERE TO FIND LOUISIANA'S TROPHY BUCKS
Northeast Louisiana
On the second day of archery season in Louisiana's northeast area, bowhunter Billy Husted scored on a spectacular trophy whitetail -- a buck in velvet that scored 219 1/8 B&C net non-typical points. The monster whitetail scored high enough to claim the new state record for a non-typical bow kill and top the archery division of the Louisiana Big Game Records.

Husted bagged his record-breaker between Tallulah and Newellton in Tensas Parish -- comfortably within the state's northeast area. To any serious Bayou State whitetail hunter, this is anything but a surprise: The historic river drainages of the Mississippi and Red River systems have yielded the majority of Louisiana's trophy whitetail deer.

"Our deer records are a direct reflection of the habitat on which the animal was produced," Moreland said. "Nearly all of the top public-land deer taken between 1998 and 2008 were killed on public lands with bottomland hardwood habitat."

Trophy whitetails in the parishes of northeast Louisiana bordering the Mississippi River are well represented in the Louisiana Big Game Records.

Private lands within East Carroll Parish have delivered some 29 trophy whitetails above the P&Y minimum of 125 B&C points in the archery-typical division alone. Most of these trophy and top-quality deer were taken on private lands in the area.