Buck Harvest Down Slightly for 2009

Deer hunters in West Virginia killed 62,491 bucks during the recently completed two-week buck hunting season in the state. 

The DNR released those figures Friday after compiling preliminary data from checking stations across the state for the hunting period from November 23 through December 5th.

The numbers represent a seven-percent decrease in the number of bucks killed during the 2008 season.  Hunters a year ago killed 67,365 whitetails.

The most significant decline was in north central West Virginia where the harvest was down 15-percent from last year’s figure and in the eastern panhandle the number was down around 7-percent.     The rest of the state was largely unchanged or saw a slight increase over 2008. 

The contributing factor in the eastern panhandle is largely suspected to be weather related where the opening day was wet and foggy throughout.    What caused the significant drop in harvest for the north-central and northern panhandle counties is still being evaluated.

Biologist say although the figures were down, it wasn’t a significant drop.  

The top ten counties for buck hunters in 2009:  Jackson (2,493), Lewis (2,215), Preston (2,123), Roane (2,116), Mason (2,105), Ritchie (1,979), Braxton (1,896), Randolph (1,896), Greenbrier (1,896) and Wood (1,853).