A portion of the Cecil H. Underwood WMA comprises the county's largest public-land hunting area. The 2,215-acre tract straddles the border with neighboring Wetzel County. Its oak-hickory forest provides ideal whitetail habitat. So do the wooded slopes of the 470-acre Dunkard Fork WMA in the county's northeastern corner. The only other public hunting is found on the tiny 55-acre Burches Run WMA, just west of the Dunkard tract. Burches Run manages to yield a few deer every year, but isn't large enough to handle much pressure.

State Route 2, which parallels the Ohio River, is the county's principal access route. Lodging and restaurants can be found in and around Moundsville.

Long a steady but unspectacular deer producer, Harrison County leapt into hunters' consciousness last year with a remarkable performance. Sportsmen bagged 4,585 whitetails within the county's borders last season, the sixth-best total in the state. Harrison finished 12th in productivity with an average of 11.8 deer per square mile.

The county's best features are its relatively large size, 390 square miles, and its accessibility. Interstate 79, known affectionately as the "Whitetail Highway," provides easy access from Charleston and Pittsburgh. U.S. Route 50 intersects with I-79 in Clarksburg, bringing traffic on a straight shot from Parkersburg and central Ohio.

The 975-acre Center Branch WMA is the county's only public hunting tract. Located near Stonewood on state Route 20, the largely unreclaimed coal-mining property is lightly forested. Most of its trees range between pole-timber and early saw-timber size.

For sheer numbers of deer, Preston County ranks as West Virginia's undisputed leader. Its rugged mountains produced a state-best 6,126 whitetails last year. It ranked 18th in deer per square mile with an average of 10.

With 612 square miles of habitat, Preston offers hunters plenty of elbowroom. Parts of the aforementioned Coopers Rock SF and the Snake Hill WMA lie within its borders. So do the 1,162-acre Briery Mountain WMA and several thousand acres of the Monongahela National Forest (NF).

All of the public hunting within the county is in mountainous settings. Hunters who plan to venture more than half a mile from their vehicles should be in decent physical shape.

Because of the rugged terrain, the toughest thing about deer hunting in Preston County is getting from one place to another. Interstate 68 provides east-west access to the northern one-fifth, but twisting, turning two-lane roads serve the rest of the county. Coal trucks, log trucks and school buses can keep traffic maddeningly slow.

Lodging and dining are available in Kingwood, but more accommodations can be found in Morgantown and Davis (West Virginia) and in Oakland (Maryland), all of which lie just outside Preston's borders.

In all of West Virginia's 55 counties, high deer numbers and public hunting opportunities arguably make their most harmonic convergence in Wetzel County. Last year, Wetzel's hunters ranked 10th in harvest with 4,168 deer and 11th in productivity with an average of 11.8 whitetails per square mile.

The county's largest public hunting area, the 13,590-acre Lewis Wetzel WMA near Jacksonburg, consistently ranks among the state's best. The sprawling, heavily forested tract yielded 103 deer during last year's buck, bow, antlerless and muzzleloader seasons.

Other public options include the nearby 555-acre Lantz Farm and Nature Preserve and Wetzel County's portion of the 2,215-acre Cecil Underwood WMA along the Marshall County line.

U.S. Route 250 and state routes 2, 7 and 20 provide access to most of the county. Their mileage can best be described as hilly and curvy. Lodging and dining can be found in New Martinsville and Paden City along the Ohio River.

What neighboring Tyler County might lack in size, it more than makes up for in whitetail production. Hunters harvested 2,629 deer within its borders last year to claim 15th place in the statewide rankings. The county's average of 13.6 deer per square mile was the state's eighth best.

Low, forested hills dominate Tyler's landscape, and they harbor a fine deer population. Most hunting in the county occurs on private land, but two sizable public tracts provide good sport for those without access to private leases or hunting-club land.

At 2,848 acres, the Jug WMA is the larger of the two. Located in a jug-shaped bend of Middle Island Creek near Middlebourne, the area boasts a nearly ideal mix of fields, bottomland, hardwood forest and pine forest. Access is by state Route 7. A few miles to the south, the 630-acre Conaway Run Lake WMA offers hunters a combination of brush-choked clearings and forested uplands. State Route 18 provides access.