There's light at the end of the tunnel for us PA guys. At leastthe PGC has finallyimplemented an antler restriction, which does leave a few more 2.5's in the woods. People around here are starting to wait for racks, but they are still in the verysmall minority. We still live in a "Brown & Down" world, here in the extreme SW corner of the Keystone State. A 115" buck is actually an attainable goal nowadays, but just 15 years ago, a 100" buck was headline news.

West Virginia, in my opinion, hasthe toughest conditions I've ever hunted. Bar none. WV hosts liberal harvest limits, TONS of poaching, ARMIES of hunters, semi-auto rifles, lawless culture... It's everything you can do to fill your buck tags down there. With anything.

Unless you've got access tosome closely guarded real estate, plan on hunting your ass off.

In total, I've probably been hunting WV for about 10 years - and have taken around 20 whitetail bucks down there. Sadly, only ONE of those deer would top 100". It was this guy:




He taped out close to 120. I'm still very proud of that deer. Public Lander, Preston County.

Easily the biggest buck I've ever seen on the hoof in Mountaineer territory.

** I should qualify my assessment of WV hunting by stating that I was mostly relegated to public land, which is less-than-ideal. Also, distance and time was a factor, so I didn't get to put in as much stand time as I'd have ideally liked.

But I can say without hesitation that if you're a big buck hunter, West Virginia will push you to your limit.