RE: West Virginia Deer Hunting Hurting!
Where I hunt in Hampshire...we still saw plenty of deer...less but plenty. We have been managing our own property for the last 7 seasons. Letting most bucks walk and shooting does. Our population has gone down mostly by choice, but is now down to reasonable size for the property size. Also our buck size has gone up, and we are killing 1 or 2 nice bucks every year. I have hunted WV for about 20yrs and I will agree that the DNR does a poor job. However, I can't really speak for other areas of the state...but around where I hunt...it doesn't matter what the laws are. Nobody follows them anyhow. They shoot whatever they want, in season or out, and numbers don't matter. They don't care, they aren't checking them in anyhow. So the problem lies not so much totally on the DNR, but on the slobs that hunt. I know guys that haven't EVER checked a deer in. Sad but true. And there aren't enough game wardens to even respond when you call them. I don'know if it is the same in other areas, but based on where I hunt, and the folks I know that hunt other areas...they all seem to have the same problem. Couple that with the fact that the ones that do follow the rules usually shoot as many bucks as they can (to prove their manhood) and I don't see it ever getting much better without some sort of antler restrictions.
Another problem, at least where I hunt is the coyotes. They have definitely taken a toll on our herd. We found 4 dead coyote kills in a 3 week period this season. 3 were fawns. We did manage to take 10 this year so far between trapping and shooting, but I doubt it made a dent in them.
I wouldn't blame the doe kill on the problem. It may contribute to the problem in some areas, but I doubt its the actual culprit...more like a pat of it. Heck in VA where I hunt, you can shoot 2 deer per day...every day...for 3 mos, and we still can't get the numbers down to manageable levels in alot of areas.