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Post by TobyRoub on Apr 8, 2005 16:42:35 GMT -5
Just wanted to get things kicked off here. In my introduction I stated that I do a little turkey hunting. In reality, it is VERY little. I turkey hunt exclusively in Webster county West Virginia. We own a little "retreat" there and don't get back as often as I would like. Just wanted to let everybody know, the land is owned by some timber companies but is open to public hunting. Miles and miles of roads, good access. Excellent deer, turkey, black bear, grouse, etc hunting.
Not that many, if any, of you have heard about it but it's real close to Bergoo. (sp?)
So what do you all have for public land?
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Post by ncboman on Apr 8, 2005 19:50:56 GMT -5
from what I've seen of WV when driving thru, it has to be some of the most difficult land to hunt this side of the Rockies. Steep doesn't begin to describe it.  |
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Post by WVHunter129 on Apr 8, 2005 20:55:18 GMT -5
Well I belong to a hunting club about 15 minutes from the house and it has 8,000 acres. But, when I go buck hunting that first week I always go to Greenbrier County and hunt on the Monongahela National Forest. Our hunting camp is in a little community called Neola on Route 92. We have had a camp there for the past 15 to 20 years and hunted there longer than that before we actually had a camp site.
Some nice bucks have been taken by some of my brother-in-laws. I think it was 2002 my one brother-in-law killed a nice 8 point. Several years before that he got another 8 point whose antlers were so think that he actually place a shot through the main beam without breaking it. There is just this nice round hole in the main beam. The rack isn't loose or anything!
There are plenty of turkeys, bears, bobcats and there use to be plenty of deer until the DNR introduced this liberal doe season that we have had for 3 years now.
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Post by ncboman on Apr 8, 2005 21:26:15 GMT -5
couple of years ago I saw a lot of deer along a stretch of road in WV. I mean a lot of deer. I'd have to look at my map to be able to name the road but it was in the northern part of WV.
I hadn't seen so many since we use to spotlight around here before the farmers started killing em off.
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Post by WVHunter129 on Apr 8, 2005 21:50:01 GMT -5
Ncboman you are correct about the northern part of the state. That is where the DNR states on their website that the herd is over populated. In fact they state that there are 21 counties still today that are over populated. But instead of applying a liberal doe season for those northern counties they applied it to all 40 some counties that were open to doe season. Therefore, counties that didn't have a problem now have a problem of to few deer. In fact the problem is bad enough that they have closed doe season in several counties, other counties they have changed the limit from 4 to one and in some counties they have them restricted to resident hunters only, no non-residents.
I am not stating there aren't deer here, but there aren't as many as there were two, three or four years ago. The buck harvest in 2002 (I think that is the year) was over 99,000 deer, this year just over 60,000 about a 1/3 drop. Doe harvest numbers were down as well as archery and I believe muzzleloader.
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Post by ncboman on Apr 10, 2005 11:24:43 GMT -5
sounds like classic mismanagement.
We have much the same problem locally as the amount of deer farmers kill during the summer is ignored. The dog hunters dominate public forum and they have the big woods tied up. Kinda promotes a kill anything mentality.
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Post by freedomrules3 on Apr 10, 2005 11:47:52 GMT -5
I,m afraid of this in Md also, with 30 does and 6 bucks allowed legally without even taking sika deer or Assateagues seperate bag limits, and then there is Dorchesters unlimited doe regs.....YIKES!
Insurance lobbyists are doing their jobs around here. decimating the herds is their answer. scary stuff.
Hunters must take the initiative here and take it upon themselves to make the limits within the holding capacities of the land. seems land and game management has taken a backseat to lobbyists wanting a zero deer per sq mile population.
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Post by eshoremd on Apr 10, 2005 14:41:59 GMT -5
i dont think dorchester has unlimmited doe harvest
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Post by freedomrules3 on Apr 10, 2005 15:28:24 GMT -5
right you are , i think they did last year or the year before. heres who does though.
* Unlimited Antlerless in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Howard, Montgomery, and Prince George's counties
urban areas
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