RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

On the property my family owns (240 acres owened, 180 acres leased) we started 5 years ago in letting spikes & small bucks go, if someone took a buck then they must take a doe. We also didn't each take the number of deer than we are allowed to take. In the 5 years since this was put into effect you would be suprised as to the better quality of bucks we have seen & taken. The group that hunts a farm that borders us thought we were crazy for doing something like this untill they also started to reap some of the reward of us letting some deer go. The point i'm trying to make is just a little bit of QDM, I guess is a good word to use in this case, will go a long way in making your deer heard healthier.


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RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

They need to do the whole state antler restrictions. Cutting the number of bucks will help, but many people don't hunt enough to shoot the full limit of bucks. However, they DO hunt enough to shoot that scrub buck that walks by.

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

How about this for a change... If the DNR will not reduce the number of tags per hunter then lets move blackpowder season in front of rifle season. And add the antler restriction to a six point or better. But even if the antler restriction was not in place, the deer would be a little harder to find because of the muzzleloaders chasing them for a week.

I know they make muzzloaders these days to shoot 300yds, but for anyone that has hunted here knows its very hard to get a shot at 200yds.

Just a thought

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

Yeah, but if you slink muzzleloader into the RUT, you'll probably have more bucks killed. Right now, rifle hits the last part of the rut, with no gun season during some of the crazy seeking/chasing phase.

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

WV already screws the bowhunters the way it is...I would NOT LIKE to see an early blackpowder season.

The bow season was moved back a week 2 years ago...and ends DEC 31 instead of Jan 31 like nearly every other state.

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

doug, maybe more bucks/maybe not. I know people that always rifle hunt but never muzzleload hunts. a matter of fact, they don't even own one. but i do see your point. there is a thread going right now about the PA antler restrictions that has been going on for a couple of years and people are still complaining???

pro-line, i understand. But, i would not like to see bow season moved back because I shot a deer in Bow Only County back in '97 in late December and it had already dropped its antlers. Now we are defeating the purpose again.

My only point is there would be less hunters out in the woods during muzzleloading season and at the same time the deer would be more spooked by the time rifle season started. Heck,move all seasons back 1 week.

WV does need to do something! There has been a rumor going around that the bow only counties are going to open up some type of gun season because the bow hunters are not killing enough does. Well go figure, for the longest time they only allowed 1 tag for one of the four counties. With the state records coming from these counties, why would you waste your tag on a doe with monster bucks surrounding ya? But now for the last couple of years you can get a extra tag and at least one out of the two tags has to be a doe. So finally they did something right! Lets hope the DNR keeps making the right decisions, whatever they may be.

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

This coming season will be my first bowhunt. Last year was my first gun hunt.
I have been practiing with my bow 3-4 times per week for 2 months so far and will continue through October. I will personally be ready to get out there with my daughter and hunt.
My concern. I have never been bow hunting before and i need to know any bowhunting etiquette that Ishould to be aware of that may be different from gun hunting.
I will be hunting on public land in WV, probably Beech Fork WMA. I just want to make sure I am doing the right thing and not bothering anyone that has been doing this for a while.
Is there anything you can think of that generally irks you when you see others doing it that I might want to avoid?

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

HuntinWV...if you are within 20yds of a deer...you can surely see its pedicles from dropping the horns. They're EASILY visible when you're close.

I just don't like the fact that bow season is basically 5 weekends long now in WV...and the way the gun seasons are set up, there were 5-6 weekends of gun hunting.

I live in Ohio, and we have 8 weekends of bow before the gun season, and 7 after. There are 6 shotgun days and 3 muzzleloader days. There are more weekend days of gun hunting in WV than Ohio has TOTAL GUN DAYS.

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

Pro-line, that is true. However, when you hunt the steep rugged mountains in sourthern WV you are not always looking down on your game. I shot this deer 40yds away, uphill, and on the ground. Taking bucks that have already dropped their antlers, has and will happen especially in WV.

I wish we had more hunting weekends also, especially bow. I know my view may vary from others just because the deer herd in the southern part of the state is alot different than up north, and when I talk about these changes I'm relating this to where I hunt.

Maybe the Ohio DNR could help straighten out our gun seasons? I would love the 6 gun and 3 muzzleloading days. :)

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

I would go along with an antler restriction, but I think first the DNR needs to stop letting the Insurance business and farmers tell them how to solve deer problems. The DNR needs to offer incentives to farmers to allow hunters on their property. It is getting harder and harder to find land to hunt on. It is either a club that has limited memberships, or a good ole boys type club with just a select few allowed.

I disagreed with the liberal doe seasons that we have had in the past few years. I knew that this would create a problem. During my 1 week buck season trip to Greenbrier Co., I hunted 6 days...I had an extra buck permit...I did not see a deer at all until Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) and it was a 5 point buck that I took. The next two days I was in the woods and didn't see another deer. My son and brother in law were with me and they never saw a deer.

You don't have to be a biologist to know that the DNR have been too liberal with the doe season and how many deer you could take.

I know that to manage the deer herd you have to take does, and I am not against that, I just think that in the past three years they were to liberal. In my home county of Fayette Co., the hunting club I use to had a lot of does and button bucks killed. That next year it was hard to find a deer. The club now is adopting its own antler restrictions as far as I know.

If someone has the link to the Charleston Newspaper article that had that information please post it, I would like to read it and post that info on the West Virginia Hunting Forum at http://wvhunting.proboards26.com for the members to read.