Big deer can pop up anywhere in Florida. Almost every county in the state can brag of at least one big buck, including such unlikely candidates as Palm Beach County and even Collier County.

This is confirmed by a look at the Florida Buck Registry, which keeps track of big deer that hunters kill in the state. In fact, if you want a trophy-class buck, the FBR listings can help you locate a good place to go. To kill a big buck, you need to hunt somewhere with a history of producing big deer.

Established by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the FBR provides hunters with the opportunity to have antlers from deer they have killed scored and placed on a list of big bucks taken in the state. By studying the registry we can get a picture of where big bucks historically have been produced.

Although the FBR began listing deer back in 1996 and includes many racks from even earlier, here we've only looked at bucks scoring more than 130 points on the Boone and Crockett Club scoring system that were taken during the past few years. After all, we want to know where big bucks are coming from now, not where they were coming from 15 years ago. That's particularly important since six counties -- Hillsborough, Flagler, Orange, Taylor, Volusia and Wakulla-- all have put typical bucks scoring 130 or more B&C points on the FBR for the first time.

When we start looking at the wildlife management areas, things get more difficult. For these tracts, we asked the FWC biologists for their picks by region of the WMAs most likely to give up some big bucks.

Most of the WMAs with the potential for producing big deer are managed under either the Special Opportunity Hunt system or the Quota Hunt system. For those tracts, it's too late to get permits for this year.

However, information about those areas gives you an idea of where to start planning for next year's buck. Many WMAs are open for foot traffic throughout the year, so you can spend the spring doing some scouting for next year as well.

You need to be aware that each WMA has its own set of rules. Not all areas are open, and there may be regulations about where you can and cannot go during different seasons of the year. Read the brochures, and know before you go.

THE COUNTIES
No. 1 -- Bay County
This one's a sleeper. You really wouldn't think of Bay County, with its deep sandy soil and swampland, as being a haven for big bucks. However, it's No. 1 on our list, with 13 bucks of 130 B&C points or more.

Bay County is in the Panhandle, but it's west of the Red Hills region and doesn't have the heavy clay soils associated with good nutrition for big deer. The habitat is a mixture of slash pine, sand pine and titi bottoms, all of which are poor deer habitat. A few oak ridges break up that pattern, providing better range for deer.

However, north of Interstate Highway 10, the soils are better, and good management can offset a lot of deficiencies. More hunt clubs are developing quality deer management programs and instituting restrictive antler size limits. They're letting the bucks get older and taking some of the does off the property so the herd is closer to the number of deer that the available habitat can support.