The parish has 41 entries in the Louisiana Big Game Records and has registered almost twice as many top 10 bucks in Deer Management Assistance Program records when compared with any other parish during the past few years.

An example is the 181 1/8 B&C 11-pointer that Donald Riviere of Moreauville downed in 1998 in Avoyelles Parish.

With regard to public lands in Avoyelles, Lake Ophelia National Wildlife Refuge's 17,500 acres are composed of a hardwood bottomland tract bordering the Mississippi River. The refuge is located north of Marksville.

In the past few years, this area has produced 14 record-book whitetails for archers and smokepolers. Three two-day weekend lottery hunts occur each year on this area, one in December and the others in January. The balance of the season is archery-only hunting, except for a three-day youth gun hunt.

For maps and more information, contact Lake Ophelia NWR at (318) 253-4238. Mississippi River Delta

If you can afford a steep $4,000 to $5,000 per year hunting lease in parishes along the Mississippi River in the northeast part of the state, then it is a good whitetail investment. That region is well represented in the Louisiana Big Game Records.

East Carroll Parish alone has delivered 29 archery trophy whitetails to the Bayou State's record book. All of those scored at least 125 P&Y points. Most of those quality deer were taken on private lands in the area.

In December of 2008, just to the west in West Carroll Parish, Mike Chapman of Oak Ridge downed a truly big whitetail -- a 17-pointer that green-scored at 204 B&C points as a typical. He was hunting with a muzzleloader, so the deer may well become Louisiana's No. 1 rack in the primitive weapons category.

The Willow Point Islands managed by Tara Wildlife of Vicksburg, Mississippi may be the choicest private parcel for trophy deer in East Carroll Parish. Access to this land is available to fee-paying bowhunters. Those fees are steep, but the racks here are as well. A large number of trophy bucks taken with a bow and listed in the Louisiana Big Game Records have come from the Willow Point Islands.

Farther south along the Mississippi River, Madison and Tensas parishes are also well represented in the Louisiana Big Game Records. Madison has delivered 30 trophy whitetails to the list, the most impressive of which is the all-time No. 1 typical taken in Louisiana. It was shot back in 1943 by Don Broadway and scored 184 6/8 B&C points.

In Tensas Parish, 59 trophy bucks have been added to the record book. That's mostly because of the bottomland hardwood habitat in the area, as well as the fertility of the Mississippi River delta soils.

If hunting public lands is a better fit for your wallet, then Tensas River NWR located in Madison, Tensas and Franklin parishes offers decent chances at trophy whitetails. This NWR offers 68,000 acres of palmetto-laden bottomland hardwoods.

Lottery gun hunts here admit 2,500 for either-sex deer action during two separate weekends in December. A muzzleloader-only hunt is available in January.

The rest of the season allows archery hunting for whitetails. Bowhunting pressure is rather low here, especially on weekdays. Some of the best archery action on the area occurs in the later season -- especially in January. The area's peak rut month is December, and the secondary rut occurs in January.

As for bucks harvested, gun records, 11 whitetails taken on firearms hunts from Tensas River are listed in Louisiana's record book, and 12 others taken by archers have topped the P&Y minimum of 125 inches of antlers.

For more information, on the Tensas River NWR, call (318) 574-2664.

Immediately south of Tensas River NWR, lies Big Lake WMA. In January of 1994, James McMurray of Gilbert harvested the top non-typical whitetail ever from state public lands. At 281 6/8 B&C points, McMurray's 30-point buck also ranks among the top 10 non-typical trophy whitetails ever killed in North American.