Bill Cochran is a Roanoke Times outdoors columnist.

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Virginia has excellent deer hunting from one end of the state to the other, but there are certain counties that produce an above average number of the kind of bucks that send hunters trotting to the annual Big Game Trophy Show.

My Oct. 14 column was devoted to the top three trophy deer counties in the state: Bedford, Montgomery and Rockingham. Now let’s look at the remaining counties in my Top 10 list. Each produced five of the highest scoring 100-entries in state competition from the 2003-04 season, with the exception of Northampton County.

I am including Northampton in my Top 10 list because the one deer it accounted for was the biggest in the state last season. There are a bunch more wall-hangers in this Eastern Shore county that is just being discovered as trophy country.

AMHERST

This country accounted for Virginia’s top bow kill of the 2003-04 season, a 12-point buck taken by Michael Panzarino that scored an amazing 225 7/16 under Virginia’s measuring system. It ranks as the second best buck of the past decade.

Panzarino killed it early in the bow season -- Oct. 11 -- which discount the theory that big bucks aren’t taken during the warm, often pre-rut days of October. In fact, the buck appeared to be in full rut, said Panzarino, who had hunted it for three years, even getting video pictures of the impressive animal.

Amherst is part of a Southwest Piedmont triangle, that includes Bedford, Franklin, Henry and Patrick counties, where food, cover and good genetics produce trophy bucks.

AUGUSTA

This country dominated the contest from 1949 to 1964 when it produced the biggest buck in the state five out of 16 seasons. That pace has slowed considerably, partly because of competition from later-to-develop deer counties; yet, Augusta remains a top trophy producer. Proof is the 14-pointer killed during the 2003-04 season by Barry Sensabaugh that scored 219 2/16 and ranked fourth in the top modern gun category. Augusta also had the No. 7 buck in that category.

This Shenandoah Valley county combines farms and forests to provide good deer habitat. There are many acres of national forest, places that don’t get pressure like they once did, where bucks have a chance to grow old in laurel thickets. The bordering Shenandoah National Park, where hunting is prohibited, provides a haven for bucks to age and grow some big antlers. It is obvious that there also are some big-antler genetics working in the county.

LOUISA

This county has a strong dog hunting tradition, so it is interesting to note that all but one of its five trophy bucks that scored high in the state contest were taken with black-powder guns. The exception is a 11-point buck entered in the 9- to 11-point modern firearms category by Tommy Holland. It scored 201 3/16.

Could this mean that sportsmen who still-hunt with muzzleloading gear are penetrating the nooks and corners of the country that escape the heavy dog-hunting pressure?

“Someone hunting a tract of land that hasn’t been hunted or has light hunting pressure stands a better chance of killing a trophy than someone hunting high pressure spots,” said Ron Hughes, wildlife biologists for the DGIF.

Food sources and genetics also come into play, said Hughes. “Soybean is a wonderful deer food, high in digestible protein, and I know this crop is planted in many parts of Louisa County,” he said.

Louisa is a long county, stretching from near Charlottesville toward Richmond, with Lake Anna on its northern border.

ROANOKE

Many people think of this country as being highly urbanized, and it is in some areas, but it also is deer country. Hunters reported killing 1,650 deer in the county last season. Among them were several trophy bucks.

In the state contest, Roanoke had the third best buck in the modern firearm’s category for 12-points and up (Chad Green, 18 points, 222 11/16 score); the fifth best buck in that class (Mark Spangler, 16 points, 218 2/16); the top deer in the 7 and 8 point firearms class (Barry Thompson, 8 pt. 186 11/16); the third spot deer in the to black-powder category (Jeff Moushegian, 18 points, 212 4/16) and the third best buck in the black-powder 6-points and under class (Luther Garst, III, 6 points, 132 14/16).

Bucks are given some protection and have diverse food sources on the farms and in the forests of the remote Bent Mountain and Catawba areas of the country. Hunters also are letting small bucks pass, giving them a chance to mature into giants. Trophy hunter Green said he passed up dozens of shots at small bucks and even let several decent ones walk by, killing the one contest buck and six does.

There’s another theory about the big bucks of Roanoke Country. Some hunters believe urbanization is giving them protection. They grow big around developments, then make the mistake of walking into the hunting arena. So the place to kill a big one may not just be in the wildest part of the county, but on the edge of development.

SOUTHAMPTON

Bucks from this county have won first place in Virginia’s Big Game Contest two out of the past six years. Southampton produced five high-ranking bucks during the recent big game contest, but no class winners. The top trophy from the county was a 10-pointer killed during the modern firearm’s season by William Callis in late December. It scored 203 9/16.

Located just east of the heavily populated Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Portsmouth-Chesapeake area, you might expect the county to be overrun with people, traffic and development, but that’s not the case. There are vast tracks of dense pines, agriculture spreads, meandering streams and swamps.

The soil is fertile, resulting in an abundance of food and cover for deer, said Todd Engelmeyer, DGIF biologist. The combination of natural food, like acorns, coupled with farm crops, including peanuts, soybeans and corn, provide the fuel to grow big deer, and those deer are given an opportunity to mature through ideal habitat and help from hunters.

Big clubs controls most of the hunting in the country, and a majority of these practice Quality Deer Management. This is a DGIF-sponsored program that strives for a healthy deer herd through science-based management practices.

SURRY

When asked why this county did so well in the 2004 state big game contest, Matt Knox, DGIF deer biologist, said, it was “a complete surprise.” Lots of others will say the same thing if they are honest. Mack Walls, the DGIF biologist who manages wildlife in the county called its big-deer production “A little known secret.”

Surry doesn’t have a history of producing contest candidates; in fact, the only class-winner that I can recall is a 6-point buck killed in 1970 by William Warren. It scored 150.

Of the five trophy deer that made the top 100 list this year, three were taken with muzzleloaders. The highest scoring buck was a 14-pointer killed by Rodger Chandler Jr. next to the last day of December. It scored 211 6/16.

Surry is located across the James River from Williamsburg, the river isolating it from the bustle of tourism, industry, business and military found on north side of the river. Its industrial park is empty and the economy is based on farming and forestry. Open farming land is interspersed with timberland that is under active management.

“This combination of a variety of forest-age classes interspersed with land being actively farmed produces excellent deer habitat,” Walls said.

Much of the land is leased to hunt clubs that promote a policy of letting the small bucks go, giving them an opportunity to grow into trophies.

NORTHAMPTON

“Where the heck is Northampton County?” That was a question Rodney Lang heard frequently when he entered the biggest deer in the 2004 state tournament, a 14-point muzzleloading trophy that scored 232 5/16.

Northampton County is on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, isolated from the rest of the state by water. It is little known as a trophy deer county beyond its watery shores.

Lang has put the county in the spotlight as a big-deer producer. His was the only buck in the contest’s top 100 from Northampton, but others would have qualified, he said. The problem isn’t the lack of big bucks. Hunters in the county simply don’t know about the contest. Those days may be over since Lang’s success was posted in a half-page spread in the local paper.

The massiveness of the buck didn’t surprise Matt Knox, deer biologist for the DGIF. “The first time I went over there I could not get over the size of the deer; biggest does I had ever seen,” he said.

Northampton was one of the last counties in Virginia to develop a deer herd. It did not have its first season until 1972. The original stock came from the north and probably were deer from the Great Lake States that migrated into Virginia from stockings in Maryland. The Lake States deer are bigger bodied than southern deer.

Deer in Northampton have done well in a habitat where large farms are bordered by fringe woodlands. Food from agricultural crops is reliable and abundant, and there are acorns in the woodlands. Farm owners and managers tend to control hunting pressure.