need some help from WV hunters

[everything was taken]

Born and raised in FL, always hunted here...21 yrs old in college. This will also be my first year bowhunting. I have gotten an invite to hunt on a lease in Wyoming County west virginia. Its a bow hunting only county.

I just basically was looking for any local information, not neccesarily for wyoming county exactly.. but WV hunting in general. Im sure its a lot different than Fl. ....

Why are some counties bow hunting only? In Fl we have nothing like that... Are the bugs bad? Minimum draw weight for bowhunting up there? Altitude sickness? Im really excited and I hope I can make it up there...All i hunt is public land which can be really tough. Are the deer herds in this area ok? Anyway, i dont mean to babble on about a million questions... If anyone wants to throw in there 2 cents to a newcomer to WV- much obliged!

(Im really excited to see the state...From what I hear its the 2nd most beautiful state, just behind FL of course )

[hillbillyhunter1]

Altitude sickness?

That made me laugh. No altitude sickness (although I realize you're a flatlander) You won't be able to tell the difference although some of the mountains can get steep. I'm from the eastern panhandle and hopefully you will receive some more detailed info from guys near where you're going to be. Those bow-hunt only counties are supposed to have some really nice bucks (because of bow-only). I'd like to get down there myself.

Sounds like you are used to hunting hard (public land) and that is generally what it takes to score nice bucks in the mountain state. Check the regs for the dates of seasons--get out and scout and you'll be all set. Try to move (if you're moving) to WV aat least 30 days prior to hunting season--then you can get a resident license, provided that you did not already purchase one this year in FL. Expect a lot of timbered ridges (some fairly big relative to what you're used to) and agricultural lands. good luck.

[royak]

You are right it is a bow only county. I live in Mercer Co which is right next to where you will hunt. There are some monster bucks there but can be hard to find. It is very mountainous and a lot of strip mining has been done. Look for large Oak flats where the deer like to feed. There is a lot of poaching that happens in the bow only counties but there are a great number of really nice bucks. Dont expect to see large amounts of deer daily and the best bet is to hunt from a stand and plan to stay all day. Hope this helped some.