WV Antler Restriction
 

Did anyone read in the Sunday Gazette that the WV DNR is working on drafting new regs for certain WMA's to be managed for trophy bucks. What are your thoughts on this? I'm sure that it would include alot of doe hunting and antler restriction.

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

A step in the right direction that's for sure. Another would be to reduce the number of antlered deer a year a hunter can take. The way it is now I think a hunter can take 6 antlered deer per year. And that can be 6 spikes if the hunter wants.

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

I agree, I think it is pathetic what i see ALOT of hunters in WV HARVEST AS A SO CALLED BUCK. I would take does all day over shooting a german sheppard sized button buck. If some sort of better management practices are not implemented ,especially for the WMAs,
the so called rack takers wont have anything but spikes to take. I manage my own land and this year will probably be only does for me . The bologna and burgers taste the same;)

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

I did not see the article but would love to see the law passed. I hunt in the bow-only counties as well as the others, and there is a definate difference in body and rack size.

I hope this raise the DNR is getting next year will include more enforcement for poaching!!!!!

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

I was new to hunting last fall after moving to WV (originally from Long Island). I spent a lot of time trying to choose a gun for my daughter and I. Once that was done we spend months shooting, practicing a few times a week. Id have to say the hardest part of all was trying to understand how many of what type of deer during what season, with what weapon we could take. Then having to decide what tag and by what date i had to buy it.
I wish it was more simple than that. Say like 2 doe and 2 buck no matter what you shoot it with or when. Im not saying get rid if the different weapon seasons. just that if you take 2 doe and 2 buck in the first week of bow season then you are done.
Of course i am new and may be a little nieve about hunting but it sure would be easier

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

I've been hunting WV for a lot of years...and their license/seasons are more confusing than states that have lotteries and draw permits. LOL

I am not opposed to antler restrictions at all...BUT, simply reducing the number of bucks allowed would also solve the problem. The way it is (tentatively) for this next year, you can still kill 5 bucks. That is assanine.

The DNR is cutting back on doe seasons, which is fine, but isn't touching the limit on bucks.

Were no wildlife biologists available the day they came up with that or what??? [:@]

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

Pro-Line, I understand what you are saying about the bucks, particulary in the southern part of the state. We don't have a huge population of deer down here. A matter-of-fact, they opened doe season for the last two years in Raleigh Coand it hurt the population BAD! I hunt private land that no one else hunts and the deer were few and far between. Its my understanding that the doe season will no longer be, but I guess you can still shoot X number of bucks???

This is why I hunt mostly in the bow only counties. :)

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

im sure i'll figure out how many i can take eventually. Im not sure it's going to matter though. I can't eat more than 2-3 a year so It will not be more than that. I'd like 1 bow, 1 gun and 1 that my daughter shoots. other than that I see no need to kill more deer.
Then maybe i'll try and sit in the woods the rest of the season trying to get a black bear. Just don't know where to do that yet

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

Danny, I like your idea. You get so many tags...how you fill them is up to you.

I'd like to see (like Danny said) 2 bucks, 2 does...PERIOD. You kill them the first 4 days of bow, you're done.

That's too easy. LOL

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

I think we as West Virginia Hunters need to get out of the habit of filling every tag that we are aloud to purchase and in a sence take herd management into our own hands.

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.

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

I still think that we need to get in the habit of not killing every deer that the DNR will sale us a tag for. I personally have decide that this year and until I can see a difference in the herd in the areas that I hunt I'll only take 2 deer. 1 buck and 1 doe.The article was in the Sunday Gazette on 6/12/05.

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

Well, my son and I have both said that we are not buying any of the additional deer stamps this year. We as hunters have to try and make sure we keep our numbers up so we can be in the woods and see some deer. So I am not listening to the DNR anymore when it comes to their statistics.

Thanks for the date the article was in the paper.

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

I read another post on here where about moving muzzleloader season. Well the problem with that is that I honestly don't think the DNR cares what we hunters think. I made comments in regards to the license fee increase, which I wasn't against, but did have some comments about the fees. Then I made comments to them about some of the regulation changes they were proposing. I never received the first email or letter letting me know that they received my comments or any reply to my comments.

I even contacted the DNR about the turkey survey and of this date haven't heard a word from them.

So what gives with the DNR? They pretty much do what they want to do no matter what we say.

I agree with the posts on here about our thinning deer heard and the very liberal doe season that they have initiated. Of course the DNR has seen their mistake and have closed doe seasons in several counties, have limited the number of does taken in certain counties and have even limited the number of bucks to three that can be taken annually. I just hope it isn't to little to late.

I also agree with the other fellow about how our regulations are. I have copies of the old regs from 1980's and 1990's before they went to the big book. It was a lot simpler years ago.

I have always felt that instead of increasing the number of deer that can be taken, extend some of the seasons. Like the fellow mentioned earlier about the archery season...why can't it go to Jan 31. Our deer season is over when some of the other states are still hunting.

We also needmore conservation officers to enforce the regulations we have and to catch poachers.

There is a lot that could be done, but don't know why the DNR don't do it. We as hunters need to band together, stand up and be heard.

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

well said hunter129, there is ALOT that needs to be done!! I just hope these recent changes is a start for good things to come? I won't hold my breathe, but I will keep my fingers crossed.

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

your 1st sentence answer is correct... the last sentence is oxymoron...refer to the 1st sentence,and remember ....that will never change...it IS the nature of the beast.

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

I could not agree with you more on this topic. Where I live the poachers start hunting with guns the first week of Archery season and continue to do so till the spring weather gets warm. I work as a security officer and we have called the DNR several times on poachers, and it seems that they never have the anyone on duty to check it out.

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

I actually know a DNR and he said "I would rather catch someone illegaly hunting turkey than deer because you can't shoot turkey at night. It's easier! If I get a call on someone poaching in the middle of the night, I've already worked my 8hrs, call someone else"

With all the backroads we have, we will never stop poaching. But with more enforcers of the law,they can help elminate some of the poaching.

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

Where I am talking about it would be so easy to catch them. They do it almost every weekend. I have ran them out on several occasions. The poachers just shoot the bucks. I feel if someone is hungry and needs the food then go out in the day light and kill a deer and eat it in my opinion that is why GOD put them here is to feed us.Don't just do it to say you killed x number of bucks or deer.

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

AR has nothing to do with shooting does.
Why are they not worried about the forest being destroyed like the lies being told up here in Pa. I have hunted in Preston county WV for years and there has always
been just as many deer there as in Pa.

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

The only reason we ar not going to see statewide AR in WV is because the DNR is already poor and they make too much money off of the extra buck and extra bow tags. And most out of state hunters buy there extra buck tag for the gun season too. Until they cut way back on managers, biologists and game wardens or really increase the cost of the license and tags they are going to continue the multiple bucks per year.
Since they can't go one buck statewide they have to just do little areas like WMA's under different rules. We don't need or want AR in WV. We just need one buck per year. Down state areas maybe most people don't kill more than one buck per year legally but up here in the Northern panhandle it is nothing to kill 3,4 or 5 bucks a year. We have the best habitat up here, the most deer but the smallest. Its no fun when you go out that you know you can kill a deer but its going to be little. I would much rather go out knowing that I had a big buck in the area and wait for him.
Unfortuneatly I live to far from the bowhunting counties to drive there and hunt but luckily I live 15 minutes from Ohio. I saw more big bucks and killed a bigger buck thanI have ever killed in WV last year in Ohio in 13 days of bowhunting. It brought the excitement back into hunting for me last year knowing I was going to have to hunt and that there were big bucks around. Ohio only allows one buck a year and the difference between those two riverbanks is only a thousand feet but the deer management is worlds apart.

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

Your right!!! It's all about the dollar bill.

Why don't they put the AR in place for everyone like 18yrs or 21yrs old and up? At least the young hunters could take spikes and other deer without saying "can't shoot that one, its not big enough". But then you will have people checking in spikes with their kids and/or family tags? Who knows? We need something done before its too late!!!

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

Ars won't work in an area where theres' no policing the hunters,which is most of the state. the honor system WON'T work, so don't leave it up to the hunters to only check 1 deer. Besides, loss of habitat is the REAL problem area for deer. Most of the state is undergoing growth, which means loss of habitat. Before long, some areas of the state will be Shotgun Only for buck season, just like Ohio and areas of Va. Maybe not in YOUR immediate area, but here in the Eastern Panhandle, there's more people than deer, and more homes than hunting spots.

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

I just don't see the WV DNR doing AR. Local clubs may do it and I figure some already do.

RE: WV Antler Restriction
 

Well,I have looked over the regs for this year and boy it is confusing. You have to read and re-read them and hopefully you will understand them. I do know that ONLY 3 bucks can be taken this year. As for does well it varies all over the state. During archery season of course you can take either sex on the first one, but if you have purchased the two extra bow tags, one of those deer has to be a doe. Some counties will be open for doe season simular to last years ridiculous limits, some will be closed to non-residents but open to residents with a 1 doe limit. Some counties will be open to both resident and non-residents with a 1 doe limit, some are by application only and some counties are completely closed.