Many of the changes made to the state’s hunting-season structure focus on enticing hunters to kill more antlerless deer — some of them during the traditional fall seasons, and some during a pair of newly created January seasons. John McCoy | Gazette-Mail
By: John McCoy, Outdoors Reporter | Posted: May 5, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail
West Virginians will soon have more days devoted to deer hunting.
State wildlife officials have voted to extend the 2018 whitetail hunt into 2019 by creating an entirely new season and by extending an existing season.
The new season, dubbed “Mountaineer Heritage Season,” will be open to hunters willing to use primitive weapons — longbows or recurve bows, or muzzle-loading flintlock or sidelock percussion rifles.
The four-day hunt, scheduled for Jan. 10, 2019 through Jan. 13, 2019, will not be open to hunters who use compound bows, crossbows, in-line muzzleloaders or modern firearms. In four counties — Logan, McDowell, Mingo and Wyoming, where firearm hunting for deer is prohibited — hunters will be restricted to longbows or recurve bows.
Division of Natural Resources officials proposed the new season at the Natural Resources Commission’s February meeting, and the commission approved it at its meeting in late April.
Commissioners also approved the DNR’s proposal to split the state’s existing archery-and-crossbow season for urban deer into two segments, and to hold one of those segments in mid-to-late January.
The first segment of the season will end as usual on Dec. 31, and the second segment will run from Jan. 14 through Jan. 31. DNR officials originally asked for the second segment to end on Jan. 20, but commissioners voted instead to extend it through the end of the month.
Another regulation change split the state’s wild boar hunting season into two segments, and moved one of those segments to early February.
The first segments will follow the usual format — an archery-and-crossbow season from Sept. 29 through Dec. 31, and a firearm season from Oct. 27 through Nov. 3. The second segment, a three-day hunt open to both firearm and archery/crossbow enthusiasts, will take place Feb. 1-3, 2019.
Commissioners also approved the DNR’s recommendations for changes to the state’s antlerless-deer and traditional muzzleloader seasons.
One minor change to the antlerless-deer season involved the addition of one more day to the October segment and one more day to the December segment. The major change will force hunters in counties with high whitetail populations to kill an antlerless deer before killing a second buck.
In the past, the regulation had been interpreted as discipline-specific; an archer who killed a buck with a bow would have to kill a doe with a bow before killing a second buck with a bow. If that hunter wanted to switch to a gun before killing an antlerless deer, he or she was able to kill a buck right off the bat.
Now, if an archer kills a buck with a bow, he or she now will have to kill an antlerless deer, either with a gun or a bow, before killing a buck with a gun.
At the same time they imposed that requirement, however, DNR officials dramatically reduced the number of “earn-a-second-buck” counties. Last year, 23 counties fell into that category. This year, that total will drop to 12.
Overall, the DNR’s antlerless-deer regulations for the 2018-19 season will be slightly more conservative than those for 2017-18.
Twenty-one counties, or parts thereof, will have more restrictive bag limits this year than in 2016. Only five will have more liberal limits. Twenty-eight will remain unchanged.
Those with more restrictive limits will include Braxton, Brooke, Gilmer, Harrison, Jackson, Lewis, Lincoln, Marion, Mason, Mercer, Morgan, Pleasants, Putnam, Roane, Summers, Taylor, Upshur, northern Wayne, Webster, Wetzel and Wirt.
Those with more liberal limits will include Clay, eastern Fayette, Nicholas, Pendleton and Preston.
At the same time the commissioners voted to split several seasons, they voted to consolidate the state’s archery-and-crossbow season for black bears. In the past, bowhunters were prohibited from hunting bears during the firearm season for buck deer. Now they’ll be able to. The consolidated season will begin on Sept. 29, 2018, and end on Dec. 31.
Commissioners also approved two other bear-related changes, doubling the length of one early-fall season and creating another from whole cloth.
The early-September firearm season for bears in Logan, McDowell, Mingo and Wyoming counties will expand to 16 days instead of the traditional eight. The season will open on Sept. 1 and end on Sept. 16.
A brand-new firearm season will take place Oct. 25-28 during the state’s early firearm season for antlerless deer. Bear hunting will take place only in counties where a two-bear limit is in effect, and hunters will not be allowed to use dogs.
Reach John McCoy at johnmccoy@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1231 or follow @GazMailOutdoors on Twitter.
