Riley's trophy buck was scored after the required 60-day waiting period by Stan Yoder, an official Pope and Young (P&Y) scorer from the Middleton area. The results show the buck tallied in with 167 1/8 as a typical 14-pointer, scoring in excess of the requirements for the P&Y Record Book.

And although it officially scored just shy of the required 170 0/8 requirement to make the B&C Record Book, it did score high enough to make the B&C Awards Book.

It's interesting to note that an increasing number of P&Y candidates are being taken each year in Kentucky. As a location, south-central Kentucky is gathering quite a lot of attention for the impressive bucks being taken there each year. News of hunters taking other impressive bucks from the south-central Kentucky counties of Todd, Butler, Logan and Muhlenberg is quickly putting Kentucky on the map as a place to go for trophy whitetails.

While the western portion of the Bluegrass State may have in the past been more highly recognized for its healthy population of trophy-class whitetails, many sportsmen are definitely keeping a close eye on south-central Kentucky.

Riley takes great pride in his whitetail management program, which includes planting a variety of lush food sources for deer and turkeys on his properties. He talks about how much he enjoys checking his digital game cameras throughout the summer and early fall. He feels that digital game monitors have been valuable for getting a good look at the impressive-antlered bucks as they gather in his food plots to feed. He especially enjoys watching their antlers grow as these bucks are captured on film over weeks, months and years.

Each spring and summer, he devotes many hours to planting 15 to 20 acres of various food plots with soybeans, clover, Austrian winter peas, Lablab and oats. He personally believes nutrition is one of the essential keys to having big bucks on his property. He's also an avid supporter of Kentucky's one-buck restriction and commends the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources for maintaining this regulation, despite the many pleas from Kentucky hunters to raise their buck bag limit.

Riley firmly believes the one-buck restriction is the primary reason Kentucky hunters continue to tag impressive-antlered bucks each season.

I recently talked with Bill Cooper, a fellow outdoor writer and biologist, who is quite knowledgeable about Kentucky's trophy-class whitetails. He mentioned that there's been a steady stream of trophy deer taken out of the Green River Region (Todd, Logan, Butler and Muhlenberg counties), and that each year, there have been some pretty impressive bucks showing up from this area.

Cooper emphasized that since the 1960s, approximately 20 bucks from this region have scored high enough to make the B&C Awards Book. (In order for a buck to make the Awards Book, it must officially score 160 0/8 or better.)

Without a doubt, Logan County has what it takes to produce legendary whitetails. The deer there have the genetics, agriculture, ideal habitat and a quality game-management program, such as the one implemented by the KDFWR. And like so many other states that enforce a one-buck restriction, Kentucky will continue to produce heavy-bodied and massive-antlered whitetail bucks -- which are bound to impress us all.