Buck numbers near DNR prediction

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Hunters killed 45,871 bucks during the recently completed two week traditional buck hunting season in West Virginia.  The figure is around the level officials with the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources anticipated it would be.

“Last year was much higher at 60,000 and that was primarily because of a poor acorn crop,” said Chris Ryan, Supervisor of Game Management Services for the Division of Natural Resources. “But two years ago the number was 37,000, so it’s in the middle.”

Mast conditions across the state going into the season were mixed and hunters who found acorns also found an abundance of deer.  Those who hunted in areas where the acorns didn’t hit were probably disappointed.   The weather was a factor in some of the northern counties of West Virginia and the high mountains.

“We had extremely high winds across the state, especially in the northern counties and the mountains, during the first couple of days,” said Ryan. “So that’s going to impact deer movement, but the primary factor was just having more acorns so deer could eat and be spread across the landscape even further.”

The numbers suggest to DNR biologists the deer population is about where it needs to be in comparison to the carrying capacity of the state’s deer habitat.

“A lot of the counties are pretty close to their management objective,” Ryan said. “It’s very close to where we predicted it to be in the hunting outlook.”

Social media sites have shown another banner year for big bucks in West Virginia.  Although anecdotal, the number of big bucks being shown off on websites appears to have continued to grow in 2016.  Ryan said the success for hunters in killing bigger bucks is a result of two factors.

“It’s not just the southern part of the state anymore. It’s Richie County, Doddridge County, Marshall County, and Upshur County. Those large, mature bucks are really starting to show up around the state,” Ryan explained. “It demonstrates the diverse age class where there are a lot of older age class deer spread around the state.  One reason is the concurrent antlerless season and the other is hunters being more selective and passing up on younger deer.”

The top 10 counties for buck harvest were:  Preston (1,769), Randolph (1,610), Jackson (1,482), Greenbrier (1,445), Ritchie (1,414), Upshur (1,392), Mason (1,266), Lewis (1,238), Hampshire (1,183) and Wood (1,182).

West Virginia Buck Firearms Season Harvest, 2012-2016
County 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Barbour 1177 1109 886 1281 1,094
Brooke 407 389 251 286 267
Hancock 320 273 200 208 206
Harrison 1385 1301 930 1418 1,132
Marion 1089 1130 702 1190 762
Marshall 1309 1051 707 818 726
Monongalia 1297 1107 689 1023 824
Ohio 466 399 232 290 266
Preston 2158 1741 1526 2046 1,769
Taylor 684 635 453 732 579
Tucker 649 527 494 783 726
Wetzel 1471 1537 891 1144 896
Dist. 1 Subtotal 12,412 11,199 7,961 11,219 9,247
Berkeley 767 871 522 908 732
Grant 1250 1135 783 1304 949
Hampshire 1588 1846 1094 1947 1,183
Hardy 1429 1447 920 1709 1,073
Jefferson 526 445 385 499 421
Mineral 1181 1345 835 1335 920
Morgan 602 743 412 678 433
Pendleton 1373 1163 861 1297 1,088
Dist. 2 Subtotal 8,716 8,995 5,812 9,677 6,799
Braxton 1401 1626 921 1660 1,100
Clay 528 475 329 618 388
Lewis 1365 1692 1166 1875 1,238
Nicholas 1212 824 871 1274 1,041
Pocahontas 1152 961 831 1008 920
Randolph 1804 1329 1291 1659 1,610
Upshur 1283 1396 1009 1704 1,392
Webster 817 717 632 1080 941
Dist. 3 Subtotal 9,562 9,020 7,050 10,878 8,630
Fayette 996 835 725 1214 885
Greenbrier 1875 1509 1372 1816 1,445
McDowell 0 0 0 0 0
Mercer 682 536 402 843 633
Monroe 1569 1466 1004 1462 1,092
Raleigh 749 579 506 895 643
Summers 1077 973 657 999 653
Wyoming 0 0 0 0 0
Dist. 4 Subtotal 6,948 5,898 4,666 7,229 5,351
Boone 898 725 519 868 573
Cabell 750 763 421 641 672
Kanawha 1164 1380 730 1547 1,053
Lincoln 1319 1124 720 1312 842
Logan 0 0 0 0 0
Mason 1676 1495 1002 1488 1,266
Mingo 0 0 0 0 0
Putnam 1191 1210 565 1114 987
Wayne 1041 870 528 963 814
Dist. 5 Subtotal 8,039 7,567 4,485 7,933 6,207
Calhoun 770 1164 504 1063 703
Doddridge 950 1243 615 1376 941
Gilmer 911 1427 669 1435 790
Jackson 1630 1917 1107 1870 1,482
Pleasants 371 438 273 492 332
Ritchie 1512 2091 1123 2024 1,414
Roane 1391 1893 927 1846 1,172
Tyler 922 1000 566 1064 850
Wirt 846 1091 681 1152 771
Wood 1403 1580 1011 1556 1,182
Dist. 6 Subtotal 10,706 13,844 7,476 13,878 9,637
State Total 56,383 56,523 37,450 60,814 45,871

 





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