DISTRICT III
The No. 1 District III county over the past two years is the same one that finished second in the state in 2006 -- Randolph. District III, which covers the central highlands of West Virginia, flaunts some of the most extensive mountain ranges in the East. With its second place figure of 1,019, Randolph sports a two-year deer harvest total of 1,679.

However, I must emphasize that a great deal of the reason that Randolph finished first is a function of the fact that this is one of the largest counties on the East Coast. Randolph contains a tremendous amount of mountainous public land. Even its farms are often hardscrabble affairs that are vertically inclined. Beyond a doubt, though, these same rugged features make Randolph one of the most beautiful counties anywhere, but it's just not an easy county to bowhunt, despite the harvest figures.

Public land choices include the 37,674-acre Beaver Dam WMA and the 80,771-acre Cheat WMA, which lie entirely within its confines and are part of the Monongahela. Both of these public lands are not known for their numbers of whitetails, though some real bruisers lurk here, too. Randolph also shares several other units of the Monongahela, among them the Otter Creek (68,782 acres), which it shares with Tucker, and the Tea Creek (67,919 acres), which is shared with Pocahontas and Webster.

The second place county was Nicholas, which sports a two-year tally of 1,456 with harvests of 660 and 796 from 2005 and 2006, respectively. The 796 mark was good enough to make Nicholas the No. 3 harvest county for last year. Nicholas is much like Randolph in terrain, although the former seems to have a few more farms and is a little less mountainous, at least from my experience of bowhunting and traveling through Nicholas. Nicholas' lofty ranking also has a great deal to do with its large size.

If you enjoy trekking into the backcountry to bowhunt, consider a visit to the Cranberry WMA (158,147 acres) in Nicholas, Webster, Pocahontas and Greenbrier counties. Be forewarned, though, that elevations as high as 4,600 feet exist, and October snowfalls are not unheard of. Once I experienced such an October snow, an eerie occurrence since the morning temperature had been in the mid-50s.

DISTRICT IV
I would guess that almost every bowhunter in the state has a favorite district to hunt and it would typically be the one that they either live in or hunt the most. And for me that would be District IV, which covers much of southern West Virginia. The "mountains of home" seem to make more sense to me, as far as where game exists, than those anywhere else in the Mountain State.

Greenbrier County recorded the best two-year harvest total of 1,378. The 764 deer harvested in 2006 enabled the county to finish in the No. 4 position statewide. In 2005, the final figure was 614.

Greenbrier is very much a tale of two cities, or in its case, of two counties. The western reaches are very mountainous with public lands, such as the Cranberry WMA and the Neola WMA (97,928 acres), dominating the landscape. (Note: Greenbrier shares the Neola with Pocahontas). Every time I hunt the Neola, my outing begins with a vertical, lung-busting ascent up a steep ridge -- a not uncommon beginning to any parcel of public land in this county, especially on the western side.

The eastern side contains its share of mountains, too, but it also offers many more farms, plus the bottomland agricultural concerns that lie along or near the Greenbrier River and its tributaries. One of my favorite places to hunt is such a farm in eastern Greenbrier County. This October, I plan to hang a stand in a mature hardwood stand (that I hope will have northern red oaks loaded with acorns). That hardwood grove lies adjacent to a clear cut. My subjective observation is that more timber cutting is being done in the county.

For the past two years, the No. 2 county was McDowell, which finished eighth statewide and was just two tagged deer behind the seventh place finisher and fellow District IV area, Fayette. However, for the most recent two-year period, McDowell recorded 1,120 whitetails, whereas Fayette registered 1,106. Interestingly, Raleigh was also right in the mix with a two-year mark of 1,107. McDowell's harvests were 480 in 2005 and 640 in 2006.

McDowell is justifiably known for its outstanding bowhunting for trophy bucks. I would guess that very few archers come to this coalfields county hoping to arrow an antlerless deer. McDowell is the type of place where your heart yearns for a mossyhorn to come around the bend any second now -- and you are quite willing to hold a vigil for the opportunity.

One of the best places to hunt in McDowell is any hardwood grove that borders some sort of "disturbance," whether it is a timber-cutting or coal-mining operation. A good public-land bet is the 18,000-acre Berwind Lake WMA, which, not surprisingly, features the same type of habitat as most of the rest of the county: steep, forbidding mountains.