Photo by Mike Lambeth.

If you've ever looked over the "Wall of Fame" at Dale Welchel's Backwoods Hunting Show in Oklahoma City, you'll agree we've had some amazing bucks living in our state. The trophy quality of our whitetails may have exceeded the expectations of some wildlife professionals, but others -- myself included -- believe our best days still lie ahead.

The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation has plans under way to improve the quality of the deer herd. In an effort to reduce the harvest of 1 1/2- and 2 1/2-year-old bucks, the ODWC has reduced the buck limit from three to two this fall, hoping that hunters will be more selective in the bucks they target.

"I think most people are in favor of the reduction," said newly named big-game biologist Jerry Shaw. "Five years down the road, most people will wonder why we didn't do it earlier. Our goal is to have a healthier deer herd and better-quality bucks."

So will the buck limit reduction really make the state's deer hunting even better? I posed that question to Mike Shaw, an expert whitetail researcher. "It's too early to tell now, but in the next four or five years we will know if our efforts have been successful," he opined.

WHAT MAKES A DEER A TROPHY?
If you polled hunters on this question, you'd get a lot of different answers. Some no doubt would call a buck with gnarly headgear sporting a multitude of points the ultimate trophy; some would call a wide-racked buck a "real" trophy. Still others (like me) want to harvest a buck whose antlers best any buck they've taken before; accomplishing that "personal best" would fit their definition of "trophy." And yet again, some quest for a big-bodied deer, their reasoning being that the heavier, the better.

All things considered, every hunter has to decide his own definition of a trophy. When I started bowhunting, I quickly discovered that there was more skill involved in arrowing a buck at close range than dispatching a distant buck with a scoped rifle. My first two bow kills -- taken minutes apart -- were a small buck and a yearling doe. After botching prior opportunities, I was elated; both were trophies to me.

During last year's primitive-arms season, I took an 8-point buck 40 yards away from my stand. To help Bruce Mabrey of Hiroost Outfitters -- (918) 759-8222 -- better manage his herd, I was encouraged to take bucks with inferior genetic potential.

The deer came in as I woke from a power nap. Slowly I raised my Thompson Omega rifle and fired, anchoring the buck with a well-placed shot. The rack lacked enough score to make the record book -- but that deer was a trophy to me.

In a nutshell, what constitutes a trophy is left to the interpretation of the hunter. Although defined in a variety of ways, most hunters would agree that any buck worthy of the record books was indeed a trophy.

BAGGING A BUCK FOR THE BOOKS
Taking a buck for the record books is no easy task. Even though the state's trophy potential is as good as it's ever been, not all bucks taken have reached their trophy potential.

So what does it take for a buck to reach its trophy potential? I asked Mike Shaw -- one of the most knowledgeable whitetail authorities I have ever interviewed. "The three ingredients necessary for a trophy buck are age, nutrition and genetics," he said. "We have always had good nutrition, and the genetics are there also, so the most critical aspect is age. A buck must be allowed to live long enough to grow his best rack."

So what's the secret to taking big bucks? That's easy enough -- just pass up shooting smaller bucks. Most hunters who've taken big bucks tell me they passed on smaller bucks for years, and reaped the rewards later.