Please also remember that smokepolers must wear at least 400 square inches of blaze orange as an outer garment and that a hunter may take no more than three antlered deer per calendar year in all archery and firearms seasons combined. Muzzleloader hunting for antlered deer is legal in all counties, except the coalfield counties mentioned earlier. As has been true in recent years, telescopic sights are legal. When being transported in a vehicle, muzzleloaders will be considered unloaded when uncapped or when the priming charge has been removed from the pan.

A CLOSER LOOK AT TOP COUNTIES
As noted earlier, Braxton led the state in 2007, and the harvest increased -- make that jumped, leaped, catapulted -- from 39 the year before to 403. The surge can be attributed to more lenient antlerless hunting regulations; nevertheless, Braxton should be an excellent destination this December.

Harvests from 2003 through 2005 show the county's potential, as the totals were 549, 567 and 463, respectively. Braxton is like many District III areas in that it has a considerable amount of mountain land with the occasional farm interspersed. The county is not as mountainous as fellow District III counties, such as Pocahontas and Randolph, but it is more upland in nature than Clay and Lewis counties.

Coming in second is Lewis. Over the past five years, harvests have steadily declined, as from 2003 through 2007, the tallies have been 510, 497, 412, 390 and 356, respectively. Still, I would not hesitate to plan a smokepole hunt to Lewis County this December, as the private-land opportunities in this region remain tremendous.

Small farms, agricultural areas, rolling hill and dale country, and creek bottoms characterize Lewis. Deer numbers have traditionally been high here. This central West Virginia county is one of the top places to hunt deer in the state.

The third-place finisher is Preston, and this District I county historically has been at or near the top in all harvest categories for both deer and turkeys. Preston is one of the game-rich counties in the entire Southeast. It definitely is a marvelous destination this December. From 2003 through 2007, the smokepole totals have been 516, 512, 354, 330 and 321, respectively.

Preston features ideal mixed habitat, the kind that deer naturally flourish in. Wood lots, fields, agricultural land and the odd orchard characterize the landscape. Given its location in the far northeastern part of the state, Preston is off the well-traveled road for many state hunters. Still, if I could gain permission to hunt private land there, I would make the long drive.

As a Monroe County landowner, I always like to see this area make any top 10 lists and last year it finished at No. 4! From 2003 through 2007, the tallies have been 335, 273, 211, 289 and 320, respectively. Monroe features considerable diversity of habitat. For example, Potts and Peters mountains both are heavily wooded and many peaks exceed 3,000 feet, as the one on my land does.