WEST VIRGINIA Deer Hunting
 

I had to laugh today while reading my local newspaper. I live in WV and our states deer hunting is really in sad shape due to the slaughtering of antlerless (does) in recent years. It seems now the states DNR are going to try something new since they are tired of BS'ing the hunters of this fine state. They (WVDNR) are now going to try and imply a buck restriction, this is where I had to laugh. Instead of having an antler restriction on the bucks killed, they are having a restriction that is a hunter (archer or gun hunter) won't be able to harvest a buck if their horns ARE NOT 14" (inside ear to ear). Is that not stupid or what? Yes, in West Virginia we do need a restriction on our bucks due to the ever decreasing herd but why not have on like our surrounding states by having an antler restriction of 3-4 points per side?
In past years West Virginia hunters were allowed to kill entirely too many does therefore our herd is suffering. Unlike the days of yesteryear when a hunter might see 30-40 deer on opening day bowseason, now you might be lucky to see 10-15 deer in both archery and rifle seasons thanks to the stupidy of our DNR and all of these other suit-n-tie so-called hunting guru's.

RE: WEST VIRGINIA Deer Hunting
 

PseMuzzy-- This was are worse year seeing deer in Ritchie co. West Virginia. To long of doe season and you can kill 9 deer most of them does. Plus the poaching is really bad there. If they don't cut back on the slaughter of the does there will be nothing to hunt.

RE: WEST VIRGINIA Deer Hunting
 

i dont want to get in a arugment with you guys and this is my opion. but if you guys are seeingin one day of bowhunting 30 to 40 deer in one day you have to many deer. now not say maybe they killed to many does in the past couple of deer but unless you got alot of food plots that is to many deer for the natural browse to feed them.i do a little hunting in wv near berkly spring and i think the biggest problem in wv is poaching.i only spend a little time and i see it. i can only think of how much is going on the rest of the time.in maryland were i hunt i have hunted all over the state and were there is alot of deer per sq mile the deer antler were poor.sure you would see alot of deer and every now and then you would see a 18 month old buck.but you wouldnt see that many mature bucks.i dont know what the prefect answer is in your state. in my opion wv needs to get tuff on the poaching problems if they dont do that nothing will work !!!!!!!

RE: WEST VIRGINIA Deer Hunting
 

I live in WV ... I hunt in OHIO....nuff said.

RE: WEST VIRGINIA Deer Hunting
 

i got a lease in south east ohio and i see a ton of you wv hunter as well. its amazing the difference the deer herd is just across the river in ohio!!!!one thing i beleive is if you truly wont to hunt mature bucks you will find a place to hunt them. im from maryland and for the last few years ive got a couple areas in md and ohio that i got a trurly good chance of killing a mature buck every year.but time will tell!!!!!!!!1

RE: WEST VIRGINIA Deer Hunting
 

Live in WV hunt in OH because my area of WV has to many deer. We need a one buck a year limit and places that need herd reduction need more doe tags. Places that don't should have reduced bag limits. Age makes bucks bigger and when you are allowed to kill 5 bucks a year not many get by to reach 2 1/2 plus years. If you go 1100 feet across the OH river there are big bucks running everywhere. The habitat is no better and the mature bucks aren't that much bigger than ours but they have half the herd density and only allow 1 buck a year to be killed. I wish the DNR would do a trial management run in the Northern Panhandle of WV with a one buck limit and try and reduce the herd some more and see the results in 5-10 years. We would have comparable if not better hunting than the 4 bowhunting only counties. But the DNR makes to much money off of the extra buck and bow tags to ever go to a one buck a year system. So until they raise the license fee we will never get to see a one buck a year limit. That's too bad,too because we could have some good hunting.

RE: WEST VIRGINIA Deer Hunting
 

If the lack of deer is on public hunting areas ,then you have a problem . But hey the Law did not shoot the deer. the hunters did. Just because they allow many doe shot dont mean you have to shoot that many.Just dont shoot them ,use self control. And especially if you own your own land.Heck with the state.Manage your land and deer your way.Yes restrictions I think should be by points. We have the same doe slaughter in Pa. What I do about it ?? dont participate in the slaughter.

I was in WV last fall. I seen deer everywhere all day long.They were standing at the edge of the woods behind houses in the middle of the day the whole stretch of route 250. Some of the properties I looked at you could not even walk in the yards without stepping in Piles of deer poop.Buy your own land manage and post and patrol it.

RE: WEST VIRGINIA Deer Hunting
 

I only saw about 30-50 deer this year. Ive heard of people in other states seeing this many in 1 day. I do think there should be a restriction but a point not an in. restriction.

nathan

RE: WEST VIRGINIA Deer Hunting
 

Can anybody find a link proving this?

Not that I don't believe you, just want to know if it is 100% now...

I'm game for antler restrictions

RE: WEST VIRGINIA Deer Hunting
 

I live in WV and live close enough to the PA border that it makes sense for me to buy tags in both. Didn't apply for a PA doe license and hunted state game lands where I could have busted a doe just about every day I hunted. Saw one nice six, but where I hunt is a four a side area. Never made it back up to hunt rifle season.

In North Central WV I'm finding the opposite of what a lot of people have posted here. I hunt two private pieces of property. One is in Northern Preston County (about 200 acres) and the other is just outside Grafton (about 75 acres). I hunted the Grafton property pretty heavily, 2-3 times a week during bow season andsaw a number of does, smaller bucks and spikes, a six and an eight that never came into bow range, and probably the nicest deer I've ever seen (heavy horned perfectly symetrical 10 point that came within six yards of clearing a thicket and subsquently hanging on my wall on the third weekend of the season-still hurts).

But you guys are talking about does and without a doubt, I passed up more does this year than I ever have. I busted one on the second Saturday of bowseason at about 8:30 in the morning, and she was the 19th doe I had seen that morning.Then I busteda five point that was deformed on one side on the first morning of rifle season. He was the kind ofdeer that probably wasn't going to get any better. And that's it for me.My fiance and I can only eat so much meat in one year.I shoot one deer per season for meat and then I'm horn hunting only, but this year I very seriously considered bagging extra does for some friends, cause there were just too many. I was seeing half a dozen does or more every time I got up a tree. If you guys have got bucks, I've got plenty of does to fill your freezer with, and we shouldtrade some hunts.

RE: WEST VIRGINIA Deer Hunting
 

there are some good points on here. WV suffers from several problems.

1. Poaching and lack of dnr agents to enforce game laws

2. poor traditonal QDM---many I know shoot every buck they see whether it is a 3'' spike or 1.5 year old 12'' 6 pt or whatever. I'm not saying these people are wrong or that this is illegal, but many will kill MULTIPLE scrags,and if you kill all the little bucks, there will be few big bucks. This attitude seems to prevail mostly in older hunters, many of whom just don't believe in QDM and think that mature bucks are some type of anomaly. Mountaineers are proud and there is definately an amount of pride attached to the phrase "yeah, I got my buck" no matter the size. Again, I'm not saying that it's wrong--just saying that it really goes against standard QDM techniques. Many would shoot a little 4 pt that was standing right next to a big ol' doe when the law says they can shoot either. I can understand shooting one scrag buck a year if you have to but not multiple ones.

3. A DNR that flounders between the need for revenue and the need for QDM--I think severely limiting the number of bucks you can kill would be a great start--2 seems like a good number to me.

4. coyotes--although I think they can be a mixed blessing as thinning the herd in addition to bag limit restrictions could lead to bigger and better deer. although, you can never have enough turkeys in my opinion and coyotes are definately hard on them too. Still, hunters need to shoot as many of them (coyotes) as possible as there will still be many left over anyway.

5. Perhaps WV DNR needs to manage the herd differently depending on which area of the state we are talking about. They need to micro-manage a little more with varying guidelines for different areas. It's harder to successfully manage an entire state with blanket guidelines.

WV could be a hunter's paradise (and already is in some ways:)) if it was managed correctly and if some were willing to sacrifice in the short term for a better long term

I don't really see an overall deer population problem, I do see (in some areas) an overall buck population problem. There are still some areas that are just fine.

RE: WEST VIRGINIA Deer Hunting
 

TOO BAD

RE: WEST VIRGINIA Deer Hunting
 

I think often times in WV, deer #s are hard for the DNR to really arrive at because of "poaching." But I don't think that it is poaching like many people think of it.

In WV you are supposed to check every deer you shoot AT a game check station. In PA you mail in half the tag for a doe you shoot, and put your buck tag through the ear of your deer for transport and that's it.-if I remember correctly-

I think many people that "poach" deer live on or close enough to their hunting land that when they shoot a deer and get it back to the house, packing it up and driving 15 miles to find a place to check it seems ridiculous. They'd rather just butcher it and freeze it. Again, it's the lack of DNR officers to enforce things, but also the hassel of the deer check system here.

WV should do one of two things to get a real handle on deer problems.

1) Develop a call in system where someone who shoots a deer on their property can just call it in and verify their license #-no one would really have a reason to lie or manipulate the #s.

2) Use the PA "mail in the tag" system. I think either system would result in more accurate #s.