hillbillyhunter1

there are some good points on here. WV suffers from several problems.

1. Poaching and lack of dnr agents to enforce game laws

2. poor traditonal QDM---many I know shoot every buck they see whether it is a 3'' spike or 1.5 year old 12'' 6 pt or whatever. I'm not saying these people are wrong or that this is illegal, but many will kill MULTIPLE scrags,and if you kill all the little bucks, there will be few big bucks. This attitude seems to prevail mostly in older hunters, many of whom just don't believe in QDM and think that mature bucks are some type of anomaly. Mountaineers are proud and there is definately an amount of pride attached to the phrase "yeah, I got my buck" no matter the size. Again, I'm not saying that it's wrong--just saying that it really goes against standard QDM techniques. Many would shoot a little 4 pt that was standing right next to a big ol' doe when the law says they can shoot either. I can understand shooting one scrag buck a year if you have to but not multiple ones.

3. A DNR that flounders between the need for revenue and the need for QDM--I think severely limiting the number of bucks you can kill would be a great start--2 seems like a good number to me.

4. coyotes--although I think they can be a mixed blessing as thinning the herd in addition to bag limit restrictions could lead to bigger and better deer. although, you can never have enough turkeys in my opinion and coyotes are definately hard on them too. Still, hunters need to shoot as many of them (coyotes) as possible as there will still be many left over anyway.

5. Perhaps WV DNR needs to manage the herd differently depending on which area of the state we are talking about. They need to micro-manage a little more with varying guidelines for different areas. It's harder to successfully manage an entire state with blanket guidelines.

WV could be a hunter's paradise (and already is in some ways) if it was managed correctly and if some were willing to sacrifice in the short term for a better long term

I don't really see an overall deer population problem, I do see (in some areas) an overall buck population problem. There are still some areas that are just fine.

mexhuntr

TOO BAD

mkiesslinggop

I think often times in WV, deer #s are hard for the DNR to really arrive at because of "poaching." But I don't think that it is poaching like many people think of it.

In WV you are supposed to check every deer you shoot AT a game check station. In PA you mail in half the tag for a doe you shoot, and put your buck tag through the ear of your deer for transport and that's it.-if I remember correctly-

I think many people that "poach" deer live on or close enough to their hunting land that when they shoot a deer and get it back to the house, packing it up and driving 15 miles to find a place to check it seems ridiculous. They'd rather just butcher it and freeze it. Again, it's the lack of DNR officers to enforce things, but also the hassel of the deer check system here.

WV should do one of two things to get a real handle on deer problems.

1) Develop a call in system where someone who shoots a deer on their property can just call it in and verify their license #-no one would really have a reason to lie or manipulate the #s.

2) Use the PA "mail in the tag" system. I think either system would result in more accurate #s.