"Ohio County is a great place to bowhunt," he said."It is one of a handful of very small counties that we have in the state, so it never makes the overall bow kill top 10 list. Ohio County is also squeezed into the Northern Panhandle between Pennsylvania and Ohio, so that is another reason why it's sometimes overlooked.

"Ohio County also has a small human population. So, providing a bowhunter can find a place to hunt, he should be able to get into some deer. The county really doesn't have any major public hunting lands."

A look at the overall kill per square mile of habitat for the past three years bears out Sharp's opinions. Ohio County only contains an area of 83 miles, but from 2004 through 2006, the all season kill per square mile figures are 18.58, 19.00 and 17.40, respectively. To put this figure into perspective, the figures for District I as a whole (over that same three-year period) are 12.79, 10.91 and 11.52, making Ohio County the state leader in that regard. The figures for the state as a whole from 2004 through 2006 are 7.82, 5.91 and 6.00.

That means that on average, Ohio County has about three times as many deer harvested per square mile than other state counties. Of course, a good reason why the county "grows" deer is the quality habitat found in the Ohio River Valley.

DISTRICT II: MINERAL COUNTY
Sharp also did not have much difficulty settling on a choice for District II, which covers the Eastern Panhandle and a number of surrounding counties.

"The Eastern Panhandle traditionally has had a lot of deer," the biologist explained. "The county has a lot of small communities, with Ft. Ashby being one of the major ones. So, the county does not have a large human population. I think Mineral's deer herd also benefits from having the bottomland of the Potomac River."

In 2006, Mineral and its area of 318 miles led District II in the deer kill per square mile of habitat parade with 9.83. That figure compares favorably with the 2004 and 2005 numbers of 9.61 and 9.47, which also paced the Panhandle. Unfortunately, Mineral is lacking in public land, Sharp said, but the county's rural nature makes many landowners open to granting permission to hunt to sportsmen.

DISTRICT III: LEWIS COUNTY
District III basically composes central West Virginia, home to some of the largest counties in the state, like Randolph and Pocahontas. Randolph County often makes the top 10 harvest listing for the various deer seasons. But in reality, Randolph does not support a large deer herd, for its kill per square mile figure was only 2.85 in 2006. This means that Randolph is not only one of the lowest counties in that regard in the district but also in the entire state.

Sharp offered a much better alternative.

"Lewis County is my choice in District III," he said. "Weston is the major population center. When that community is factored out, a lot of rural land remains. Another reason why Lewis is a good choice for bowhunters is Stonewall Jackson WMA.

"In recent years, we have had some fairly liberal antlerless seasons in Lewis in an attempt to reduce the herd, and the herd has been reduced some. But there are still a lot of deer in the county."

From 2004 through 2006, the kill per square mile figure for Lewis and its 381 miles is 14.21, 12.44 and 11.25, respectively. Therefore, the figures do bear out the biologist's contention that the herd has been reduced. It is also true that the county has led the district in that regard in each of those years. Those figures also strongly indicate that the deer herd is still quite substantial and that the county makes for an enticing destination for this autumn.

Sharp's selection of Stonewall Jackson also is logical. At 18,289 acres, the public land is one of the larger WMAs in West Virginia, so it offers elbowroom for the adventuresome bowhunter. The mixture of farmland, woodland, mixed hardwoods and rolling hills also provide whitetails with the diverse habitat that they so crave.

DISTRICT IV: MONROE COUNTY
Stretching across southern and southeastern West Virginia, District IV contains both extremely steep mountains and lush valleys. A county that is a splendid mix of those two traits is Monroe.

"There are a lot of farms in Monroe and that is a major reason why it has a good deer herd," Sharp explained. "The county also has quality soil and habitat, and those are two conditions usually needed for having a lot of animals."