By Bruce Ingram

West Virginian's bowhunting brigade established a record harvest in 2002 as 36,292 whitetails were toted to check stations. The new mark was a 4 percent increase over the 2001 tally of 34,768. As is true every year, record harvest or no, certain counties stand out.

Last year, the top five counties (with tentative bow harvests in parentheses) were: Preston (1,699), Randolph (1,669), Greenbrier (1,213), Nicholas (1,170) and Fayette (1,069). Chris Ryan, a wildlife biologist for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (DNR) in the Charleston office, provides details as to what made the hunting so good in these counties last year - and why they will all likely produce well this coming autumn.

"Some counties rank high because they are large in size, and some rank high because they have a good-sized deer herd," says Ryan. "Preston was No. 1 because of both factors. The county has a lot of private land, and the habitat there is very good, not only for deer but also for turkeys and bears. There is a nice mix of farmland, crop fields and pastures. And deer love that diversity of habitat.

"Another example of this diversity is in the types of forests present. Preston has northern hardwoods, but it also has oak-hickory forests, which attract deer better. If the oak trees have borne heavily, that's where the deer will be most years. But even if the hard mast crop has failed, the deer will see be able to find plenty to eat in the county's corn and buckwheat fields."

Photo by Ron Sinfelt

The major pattern in Preston, continues Ryan, is for the deer to bed in the mountains and hills and then move to the county's cropland in the evening. Preston lacks much stream- bottom habitat, so generally hunters have no need to consider a pattern of that sort.

Ryan says that although Preston County contains several small wildlife management areas (WMAs), the best public land destination is Coopers Rock State Forest (SF), which contains some 12,698 acres. This public area features stream-bottom habitat compliments of the Cheat River Valley, plus plenty of highland peaks on the mountains that encompass the state forest. The latter is known for its steep sides.

Ryan states that Coopers Rock SF is very convenient to those archers living in Morgantown. Access is excellent with Interstate 68 running nearby. The closeness to Morgantown results in the state forest receiving quite a bit of hunting pressure during the gun season, but the biologist informs that bowhunting pressure is light, providing bowhunters are willing to walk back into the mountains.

Actually, much of the "pressure" that takes place at Coopers Rock is from hikers and sightseers. Those individuals probably outnumber bowhunters on October Saturdays. Still, if hunters want to remove themselves from human contact, hunters or not, they will need to hike several miles back into the forest. For more information on Coopers Rock SF, dial (304) 594-1561.

"All five of the top harvest counties lie within mountain ranges. And as such, they all have extensive stretches of upland habitat. Of the five, Randolph is the biggest in size. It is also the largest county in West Virginia in terms of square miles of wildlife habitat, with some 1,015 miles. The way the DNR figures deer habitat is to deduct all cities, four-lane roads, and water from a county's overall square miles.

"Much of Randolph's deer habitat is found on national forest and other public lands. So the county has long been a traditional destination for hunters. The Monongahela National Forest (NF), for example, has over 1 million acres and quite a bit of that land is in Randolph. As a whole, Randolph has some farms and a little bottom country, but by far, most of the county is quite mountainous."

The 9,165-acre Kumbrabow SF lies totally within Randolph County. Kumbrabow superintendent Matt Yeager says the state forest has five rustic cabins and 13 rustic campgrounds available for rent. Those facilities stay open through the last day of muzzleloader season, a testimony to how importantly the state forest regards hunters as customers. Interestingly, the five cabins have already been booked for the first week of bow season this October, but not all of them are being occupied by archers. Outdoor lovers of all persuasions come to Kumbrabow in the 10th month, so Yeager suggests that bowhunters contact him well before the season begins.

"Bowhunters love to come to Kumbrabow because it has so much remote land," he says. "Besides West Virginians, last year we had people from Maine, Michigan and South Carolina, among other states. We also have some big bucks taken; gun hunters killed two 10-pointers last year, in fact. For archers, the best pattern is to walk the trails and then veer off when they find deer foods or signs.

"I have been here six years, and a real problem for bowhunters is that the dominant food source has never been the same two years in a row. Sometimes, bowhunters will find the deer feeding in beech groves, sometimes around cherry trees. Other years, the deer may be feeding on red oak acorns. Last year, the deer fed a great deal around our grassy areas and wildlife food plots because there was so little mast; we had a late freeze."

Yeager emphasizes that bowhunters had better be prepared for some very harsh weather conditions. Last year, the state forest experienced its first snowfall in mid-October when about 1 inch fell. In January of 2003, some 75 inches of snow fell. Even an archer who comes on opening day had better be dressed for the possibility of subfreezing temperatures as well as sleet and/or icy rain. Adding to the challenge is the fact that hunters often have to ascend steep ridges to reach flats where cherry or beech trees grow. For more information on Kumbrabow, dial (800) CALL-WVA.

Much of the northern sector lies within the Monongahela NF with the 97,928-acre Neola WMA, which Greenbrier shares with Pocahontas County, dominating a good chunk of the landscape. Sherwood Lake (167 acres) also lies in this part of Greenbrier and is a popular place for archers to camp.

In the southern reaches, Ryan says that farmland and cattle-rearing operations are much more common, and overall the land is not as mountainous - though steep sections still exist. After all, this is southern West Virginia. In this region, many farms lie outside the communities of Lewisburg, White Sulfur Springs and Sam Black Church, which themselves lie along Interstate 64.

Ryan informs that this month is a good time to visit the farms in southern Greenbrier in order to obtain permission to bowhunt. He says the county's farmers have a good reputation for letting polite and responsible bowhunters go on their properties. Some of the best farms to hunt border the Greenbrier River and its tributaries. In fact, every year some fine bucks are harvested from this bottomland habitat, and deer numbers are often excellent.

Mike O'Brien is assistant superintendent of 5,130-acre Greenbrier SF, which lies between White Sulfur Springs and Lewisburg. O'Brien said that the state forest receives very light hunting pressure during bow season and the land is so mountainous that the few archers there have plenty of opportunities to spread out.

"A new development at the Greenbrier State Forest is some habitat improvements that have taken place on Roaring Mountain, which is accessible by Kate's Mountain," says O'Brien. "We just had a timber harvest completed and have been able to seed some roads and enlarge some game food areas. I look for the state forest to offer some very good hunting this fall based on those habitat changes.

"We had deer on Roaring Mountain before, but I look for their numbers to increase. The habitat was simply not very diverse before, but will be so now. Another thing that has been accomplished is that some crop tree release harvest has taken place. That's when, for example, timber cutters will come across six white oaks growing together and remove the five smallest ones. The remaining tree then has a chance to spread out and grow and eventually produce more acorns than the six trees as a group would have. Selective harvesting can be a very positive thing for wildlife."

In the lower reaches of the Greenbrier SF, O'Brien says hunters should also be able to encounter whitetails. A number of openings exist in the valleys, and deer often congregate around them during poor mast years. In fact, the 2002 season was one when hard mast was scarce in Greenbrier County, and the valleys typically attracted more deer than the uplands did. The Greenbrier SF features eight game food plots in its lower reaches for archers to choose from.

Cabins are available for rent from mid-April through the end of October, and campsites are available from mid-April through early December. O'Brien informs that some fetching midweek specials exist both for sportsmen and the general public - an enticement that bowhunters especially might want to take advantage of. For more information on the Greenbrier State Forest, call (800) CALL-WVA.

"Some very nice bucks live on private land in Nicholas County," he says. "The deer herd is a little lower in Nicholas than in some counties, and the lower deer density has resulted in some bigger deer of good quality. A lot of the county is heavily forested and much of that part is also very rough and mountainous, especially that area which lies near the New River Gorge in Fayette County.

"The steep, isolated habitat in Nicholas County also gives deer a better chance to live longer. A good pattern is to hunt along the tributaries of the New that lie within the county. For habitat diversity, there are some farms in Nicholas, but mostly bowhunters will have to figure out forest deer."

Nicholas County shares the Cranberry WMA (158,147 acres) with Webster, Pocahontas and Greenbrier counties, but the public land is especially good for archers. Biologist Ryan says the fact that the Cranberry offers superlative walk-in wilderness hunting makes it prime for bowbenders.

Not only does the WMA as a whole provide backcountry bowhunting, but it also contains a unit, the Cranberry Wilderness Area (35,864 acres), where motorized vehicles are forbidden. Sportsmen often ride horseback, use horses and wagons, mountain bikes or foot power to access the hinterlands of the wilderness area.

The biologist also warns archers that the Cranberry is known for its harsh weather. Even in October, snow and subfreezing temperatures are a real possibility. Indeed, when you come to the Cranberry, regardless of the season's stage, expect to have to endure poor weather. I have hunted in the Cranberry in mid-October and have witnessed first-hand fluke snowstorms. On one occasion, the temperature dropped some 35 degrees over the course of an afternoon. By nightfall, my companions and I were hunkered down in a tent that was buffeted about by high winds and a snow squall.

Patterning deer can be a problem in such a vast area. As is true in the Kumbrabow State Forest, a similar high mountain environ, beechnuts and cherries are major deer foods. Elevations can range as high as 4,600 feet, so late-spring frosts often play havoc with hard and soft mast production.

"Fayette is another county where I would advise archers to knock on some farmers' doors this month," says Ryan. "The county does not have a lot of farmland, and the landowners of those farms are likely to receive a lot of requests for hunting rights. Once you are able to obtain permission, I recommend beginning the scouting process as soon as possible."

I have hunted in Fayette County a number of times and frequently came home exhausted. The reason is that many of the best hunting spots require a great deal of climbing mountains or walking across forbidding terrain. Invest in a solid pair of boots if this county is a planned destination come October. Some of the flats I ended up hunting on were only 300 or 400 yards from the road, but those topo features often took as long as 45 minutes to reach because of the perpendicular terrain.

Ryan recommends the Beury Mountain WMA (3,061 acres) as being a worthwhile public land. The WMA is one of the more recent additions to the state's public land lineup and was obtained thanks to money accumulated through hunters and fishermen purchasing Conservation Stamps.

Beury Mountain WMA is adjacent to Babcock State Park and as such benefits from state park deer wandering over into its confines. Ryan says that the WMA features quite a few older clearcuts that often draw deer, which like to bed and forage within. A good gambit is to place portable stands along the perimeters of these clearcuts.

Beury WMA contains both steep and gentle slopes, with the former often being a hangout for older bucks. Oak-hickory forests and northern hardwoods are two major forest types there. Mountain rills that are part of the New River system also line the public land, and deer trails often meander along these streams.

The public land is accessed via U.S. Route 19. Camping is forbidden at Beury Mountain, but sportsmen can find campsites and cabins at Babcock State Park. For more information on lodging there, dial the toll-free number mentioned earlier.

Of course, the five counties detailed here are not the only ones where impressive numbers of deer were arrowed. Filling positions six through 10 are Webster (1,051), Kanawha (989), Braxton (925), Monongalia (869) and Summers (839). Frankly, hunting in this "second string" of counties can often be just as good as it can be in the upper echelon. And plenty of smaller counties exist that have excellent deer killed per square mile of habitat ratios. Those counties never make the top 10 list, but offer marvelous bowhunting nevertheless. Indeed, great bowhunting is a given throughout most of West Virginia.