kwilson16

I am moving to Northern Va - outside of Washington, DC.

I just applied for membership to the Suburban Whitetail Management of Northern Virginia (www.swmnv.com). They are an organization which promotes responsible management of suburban deer herds.

Anyone have any opinions/experience with this group?

virginiashadow

Kwilson, I think membership to the group just entails you can present the groups info to prospective home-owners in attempts to bolster your chances of hunting on their property. I don't think they have a list of properties you can hunt on per say. Many home-owners in Northen Virginia are just going to flat out say no to you hunting on their property. We have talked before and if you have nothing else going on, I will be more than happy to show you around and provide you with the ins and outs of hunting on Quantico Marine Base. It would be my pleasure.

Another place I would suggest hunting would be Fort Belvoir. Although I have never hunted there, it is bow only all year and has early and late season doe hunting, making the season a total of 6 months long! You can't beat it. Best of luck to you. Here is the link to Belvoir Hunting.

http://belvoirbowhunters.com/

Brett

kwilson16

Brett,
Thanks! I will definitely take you up on the offer for Quantico and Belvior. I will not be settled up there until at least May so I am going to miss the off-season scouting, shed hunting etc. I have somesolid properties in WV and MD that I can share also. I always like to have something closer to home though - which led me to the SWMNV idea.

The website claims that they haveproperties which are assigned upon membership. I am suspicious (by nature) so I was hoping someone on here could validate their claim(s). Looks like the membership is about 35 so maybe they are not that widespread.

virginiashadow

Kevin, don't worry about the scouting. Not that I am the great white hunter but I have hunted Quantico for the past 10 years so I know some spots to put you on. I will send you some maps of some solid spots if you aren't able to get out and scout alot due to your relocation. I alsoplan on taking off from aroundHalloween to November 15thto huntso we could get in some days if things don't work out for you with the urban hunting.Take care.

Diesel77

Brett, I met a few guys at the Harrisburg showthat hunt Quantico and have taken some really nice deer outta there, one was 160"s if Im not mistaken they showed me pictures of. They said it can be a really good place to hunt.

kwilson16

That's good to hear!

virginiashadow

Diesel, it can be a good place to hunt, but it can also be tough. I know the overall deer kill was around 1000 on average every year for a long time. The last few years it has dropped significantly, to around 650 on average. The only upside to the lower numbers of deer are that the deer have been looking bigger. In fact, the buck that I took this year weighed 120 lbs which is a decent deer for these parts. Over the past 10 years I have killed maybe 25 or so deer on Quantico and not one went over 105 pounds. Also, the buck to doe ratio seems to be tightening.