SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Archery season for deer, bear, and wild boar in West Virginia would open on the last Saturday in September under a proposal made by the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources to the Natural Resources Commission.
Current legislative rules call for the bow season to open on the Saturday nearest October 1, but state wildlife officials like the idea of a set in stone opening day to help with scheduling.
“It’s really a minor change because the Saturday closest to October 1 and the last Saturday in September is the same day in most years,” said Game Management Supervisor Gary Foster. “This gives us a little more flexibility in October when we’re trying to position all these other October seasons and minimize the conflict among other user groups.”
Planners try not to have the opening day of major seasons like bear, deer, and turkey on the same day to avoid any conflicts.
The change in the season was the most significant shift from the whitetail deer regulations proposed last weekend to the Natural Resources Commission. Under this year’s proposals bag limits for antlerless deer are largely the same.
“We’re definitely not proposing a lot of changes,” Foster said. “Some counties will kick in and out of some management frameworks, but no major changes for this year.”
The proposals mean the requirement for hunters in both archery and rifle season to kill a doe before they can take a second buck remained in place.
“We got some negative feedback on that regulation,” admitted Foster. “There’s still a segment of deer hunters who just like to buck hunt and don’t have a lot of interest in hunting does.”
Despite the negative feedback, Foster said the regulation worked and the antlerless harvest for 2013 increased 28 percent. The number of bucks killed in 2013 to 2012 was nearly identical and the ratio of bucks to does killed was almost 50-50.
“The bottom line is we’ve had maximum bag limits on a lot of those counties for years and years and increasing the antlerless deer bag limit is not going to accomplish our objective,” said Foster.
Foster said due to the loss of habitat, especially in the northern counties and eastern panhandle of West Virginia biologists believe those areas still have more deer than the land can support.
The proposed regulations for 2014 again include the splitting of the traditional antlerless deer hunting season into two three day seasons. One season would be October 23-25 and the second December 18-20. Hunters would also be allowed to kill antlerless deer in most counties during the two weeks of buck season which will be November 24 to December 6 and a final three day antlerless season December 29-31 on private land.
The proposal also calls for the muzzleloader season to fall the week immediately after buck season December 8 through December 13.
Foster told members of the commission the muzzleloader numbers rebounded significantly in 2013 after the season date was changed in 2012. He attributed the increased success during black powder season to hunters becoming more familiar with the new regulation.
The proposed 2014 hunting season dates and bag limits will be out for public comment and will be available to hunters to discuss with wildlife biologist March 17-18 during the annual sportsman’s sectional meetings across the state.