OCEANA, W.Va. — Across West Virginia this weekend archery hunters will ascend their selected tree in hopes of spying a big buck. Nowhere is it more prevalent than the southern coalfield counties of West Virginia. Years of restrictions on hunting in Logan, Mingo, Wyoming, and McDowell Counties have enabled the area to produce some enormous deer.
“Smaller bucks, two and a half or three and a half year old bucks will come out into the fields where I’ve planted food plots,” said Travis Bowman, Wildlife Manager at the R.D. Bailey Wildlife Management Area in Wyoming County. “But those older bucks, I pretty much never see them and if I do, they see me too and they turn around and they are out of there.”
The four counties in the south are legendary for the trophy bucks they hold. Most who have experienced success there will tell you nothing comes easy. Few if any of the bucks in the state record books for archery were taken by the good fortune of being in the right place at the right time. Most hunters pattern a single buck and often study his movements for several years in hopes of gathering enough knowledge to be in a position just once to get him into bow range.
“It takes patience and a lot of work,” said Bowman.
Fortunately for bow hunters across the rest of West Virginia, the level of dedication to be successful isn’t quite as steep. The 2015 mast survey isn’t published yet, but Bowman participated in the observations and revealed on last week’s Northside Automotive West Virginia Outdoors the higher ridge tops may not be the place to hunt this year.
“The beech hit really good and hickory hit really good and that’s great for squirrels, but the acorns are what the deer key on,” said Bowman. “The oak mast is a little spotty. Up high in the higher elevations I’ve seen virtually no white oak at all. When you get down to about 1,200 feet and below it picked up. There’s a decent amount of white oak and a little bit of red oak.”
Bowman suggested carefully scouting the area where you hunt to have the best information on where to place your stand. The mast survey published by the DNR serves as a good overall guide, but Bowman said nothing replaces eyes on the ground.
“Check your oaks and see if they are producing, that’s a good place to expect deer to be loafing around if there are acorns,” he said. “Then check for gaps or low points, something that will funnel deer in.”
The early opening date could be an advantage to eager hunters who want to get into the woods. Deer are in a transitional pattern from summer to fall and many may still be moving ahead of the pre-rut period.
“It’s really an advantage to the bow hunter, deer are still moving in a daylight pattern,” he said. “However as the days get shorter and the mast starts dropping, bucks especially are going into a more nocturnal pattern. If you can get out there early, especially if we have a cold front, there’s a chance you could get a nice buck before we go into that lockdown mode where they pretty much only travel in the night time hours.”
Finally, this will be the first archery season in which hunters can legally use a crossbow. The crossbow season mirrors the state’s archery season except in the four bow only counties of southern West Virginia. Mingo, Logan, Wyoming, and McDowell County are not open to crossbow hunting unless the hunter has a handicapped permit.