The West Virginia DNR estimates 320-thousand hunters will be in the woods on the opening day of bucks only gun season in
"By all standards, it’s the most people in the woods and everybody is interested in going deer hunting," said DNR Biologist Jim Crum. "Surveys show that 98-percent of our hunters are deer hunters."
The DNR believes the bulk of the deer killed during the two week season will be taken in the first three days of the season. The intense number of hunters is responsible for this spike in hunting success. During the last days the interest tends to wane as most hunters have either taken their allotment of deer or must return to work.
Crum says hunters should enjoy a high rate of success for another year.
"We’re looking for an increase in the overall antlered buck harvest this year," said Crum. "We have a lot of deer out there in some places, maybe too many in some. We’re looking for that to translate into an increased harvest."
Once again a number of
"A lot of these properties are hunted those first three days of the buck season, that’s the only time they have hunters on them," explained Crum. "It allows that land owner to manage his deer herd because the antlerless season is the only way to impact that deer herd."
Biologists will tell you killing a buck eliminates one deer from the population. Killing a doe eliminates at least three, the one you killed and the two fawns she would have had in the spring. It’s an effective way to rapidly bring down an areas deer density when the numbers have grown too high for the area to support.
Since liberalizing the antlerless season several years ago,
The one uncontrollable factor for the DNR is weather. Crum says a downturn in weather can severely impact the number of deer harvested. He explains the weather has a greater impact on hunters than on the deer.
"If it’s nasty, a lot of hunters don’t hunt," laughs Crum. "When that happens and they don’t spend the time a field and make that deer-hunter contact, we don’t get the harvest."
One other factor that could impact deer behavior is that this year’s season falls later in the year than in the recent past. The season is always set to open on the Monday before Thanksgiving. This moves the opening date either further from or closer to the peak of rutting activity in the state. The rutting activity can often cause a buck to become less fearful and make decisions that give hunters a unique opportunity.
The season runs until December 6th.