Last season, David Lambeth, my nephew, arrowed a huge Panhandle buck that field-dressed 240 pounds. Yes, it's true; although most don't, some check stations do have scales that weigh up to 300 pounds.

TOP COUNTIES FOR TROPHIES
According to the Cy Curtis record book rankings at press time, the state's top county for taking a record-book typical is Pushmataha, with 206 entries, followed by Pittsburg, with 157, Woods, with 145, Osage, with 140, and Hughes, with 106.

The top county for bagging a record non-typical is Hughes County, with 35 entries, followed by Pushmataha, with 33, Pittsburg and Woods, with 30 each, Okfuskee, with 29, and Latimer, with 24.

The top county for taking a record-book typical mule deer is Cimarron, with five entries, followed by Beaver and Texas with two apiece. If you're looking for a big non-typical mule deer, Cimarron County is your best bet, with two entries posted.

The northwest counties with the most Cy Curtis whitetail entries from the 2006 season was Logan with four, followed by Dewey and Harper with three each, and Woods and Blaine with two apiece. In the northeast, the top counties were Osage, with four, followed by Adair, Cherokee, Creek and Payne, with two each. In the southeast, the top county was Coal, with four entries; next came Atoka, Pittsburg and Pushmataha, with three, followed by Cleveland, Hughes, LeFlore and McIntosh, with two each. In the southwest, the top counties were Caddo, with three, followed by Garvin and Jackson, with two apiece. In the Panhandle, the top county was Beaver, with but a single entry.

The top county in our state for total Boone and Crockett bucks is Woods, with 10 entries.T

TOP TYPICALS OF 2006
The state's top typical was taken in McCurtain County during the first month of archery season by Johnny Watkins. He arrowed a great 10-point buck that epitomizes symmetry -- its net score 178 2/8 after only 1 5/8 inches of deductions. Watkins' buck will enter the Cy Curtis record book as the sixth-largest typical taken since the state began recognizing trophy whitetails. Ironically, the buck was Watkins' first bow kill.

Watkins, 58, had hunted deer for 20 years, taking only four or five deer because, he said, he didn't take deer hunting very seriously. But after watching some big bucks get checked in at a local check station three years ago, he resolved to take a different approach to deer hunting. "I decided I was going to learn to be a better hunter myself, so I could, hopefully, shoot a big buck myself," he said.

While gun hunting in 2005, Watkins, 58, concluded after seeing and missing a big buck three times that his best chance for tagging the brute would be during bow season. Archery wasn't new to Watkins, who had formerly made a name for himself as a competitive target archer, but he'd never ventured afield with stick and string, and so spent a considerable amount of time practicing with his bow. He began scouting the big buck's habits three months before the 2006 archery season.

Earlier in the season, Watkins missed a close shot at another buck because he got engrossed in the antlers and botched the shot. "I decided then and there that if I ever got another shot at a nice buck, I wouldn't look at the antlers," vowed Watkins. "Instead, I would concentrate on making a clean shot to the buck's vitals."

Hunting a favorite stand during a drizzling rain on Oct. 26, a cold and wet Watkins decided to leave at about 9 a.m. When he stood up to climb down, he noticed a buck walking down the ridge and toward his stand. At 30 yards the animal stopped, and the archer released an arrow, mortally wounding his first buck. The deer traveled only a short distance before piling up.