SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The drastic drop in the number of bucks hunters killed in 2014 is reflected in the proposed regulations for the 2015 antlerless deer hunting season in West Virginia. Whether the changes are enough to satisfy hunters remain to be seen.
“The season framework is very similar or the same as in years past,” said DNR Game Management Supervisor Gary Foster. “There will be a lot of counties that are the same, but a lot of counties will be a lot more restrictive. That’s primarily due to that decreased buck gun harvest.”
Under the proposed regulations for 2015 Boone, Tucker, Wayne, Webster and portions of Clay, Fayette, Greenbrier, Kanawha, Mineral, Pendleton and Raleigh counties would have no antlerless hunting season.
Hunters in Randolph, Mercer, Nicholas, Pocahontas and portions of Clay, Fayette Raleigh counties will need to apply for a limited number of tags in 2015 and the bag limit will be one antlerless deer.
The biggest change may be a reduction in the antlerless bag limit in selected counties. Hunters in Barbour, Braxton, Cabell, Grant, Hancock, Kanawha (north of Elk River and west of Corridor G), Lincoln, Marshall, Pleasants, Preston, Summers, Taylor, and Upshur Counties will see their bag limit for 2015 set at one antlerless deer.
The other major change will be in the number of counties where hunters are required to kill an antlerless deer before they could kill their second buck. Thirty-one counties carried the so called “earn a second buck” restriction in 2014. The number this year is down to nine counties or parts of counties. Those are Calhoun, Doddridge, Gilmer, part of Greenbrier, Hampshire, Part of Mineral, Morgan, Ritchie, and Wood Counties. The bag limit in those counties for antlerless deer remained at three as proposed by game biologists.
The bag limit will also remain at three without the “earn a second buck” restriction in Berkeley, Brooke, Hardy, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Lewis, Marion, Mason, Monongalia, Monroe, Ohio, Putnam, Roane, Tyler, Wetzel, and Wirt County. The eastern portion of Pendleton County was also added to the three antlerless deer limit for 2015.
“We had a significant reduction in the harvest, but I really don’t think it’s reflective of the deer population as much,” Foster said. “We had some really bad weather, especially on opening day and then mast conditions, the oak mast was very good. The harvest looked similar to 2010 when we had another bumper mast year. It definitely affects deer movement and their availability to hunters and I think that was a big part of last year.”
The proposals keep the season framework intact. The season would be October 22-24, November 23-December 5 concurrent with the buck season. December 17-19 and December 29-31 on private land. The season dates for public land include November 23-December 5 concurrent with buck season, December 17-19, December 29-31.
The agency indicated harvest objectives and population density is more inline with management plans on the state’s public hunting areas. The proposals include a limited antlerless hunt with a bag limit of one on the Elk River, Big Ugly, and Wallback WMA’s and Greenbreir State Forest and Kumbrabow State Forest.
Biologists suggested unlimited hunting with a one deer bag limit for does on Castleman’s Run, Stonecoal Lake, Camp Creek, McClintic, Stonewall Jackson Lake, Amherst/Plymouth, Cross Creek, Beury Mountain, Chief Cornstalk, Lewis-Wetzel, Bluestone, and Greenbottom Wildlife Management Areas as well as Cooper’s Rock State Forest. Any public hunting area not specified in the proposal would follow the county’s proposed regulations for antlerless deer hunting.
The dates and bag limits are only proposals at this point. They will go out for public comment and the agency will accept comments on the ideas during the upcoming sectional meetings in March. The state Natural Resources Commission will vote on the proposals at their next meeting.