West Virginia's Smokepole Deer Season Old-school hunting enthusiasts in our state continue to do their part to manage the deer resource by posting impressive harvest numbers -- one shot at a time -- each season. Here's the latest! (December 2007) ... [+] Full Article
Mountain State Deer Outlook -- Part 1: Our Top Harvest Counties
Lodging and restaurants are available in Middlebourne, New Martinsville, Paden City and St. Marys.
Last, but not least, on this year's best-bet list is Marion County. Its rugged hills, once famous for the many coalmines that operated there, are now producing deer.
Last year, Marion's hunters took 3,544 whitetails, the state's 13th best total. The county's average of 13 deer per square mile ranked 10th.
The bad news: Marion County has no public-hunting areas. Some coal companies allow access to their lands, but outsiders shouldn't consider that an open invitation to wander where they choose. Some careful pre-season scouting and permission asking can go a long way toward maintaining healthy hunter-landowner relations.
Fortunately, for all sportsmen, deer can be found anywhere in the Mountain State. Some areas have fewer deer than others, and some areas have more. Statewide, the average deer kill per square mile last year was six. As West Virginians are fond of saying, "That ain't too shabby."
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