Photo RON SINFELT

Over the past decade, bowhunters here in the Mountain State who concentrate their efforts on trophy bucks have focused on the four southern counties of Boone, Mingo, McDowell and Wyoming. After all, these four counties have been closed to gun hunting for a number of years now. And numerous trophy bucks have come from this area over the past 20 seasons.

In addition, there have been a respectable number of wallhangers that have been taken from many of the other surrounding counties that border these four areas. Simply put, this region of the Mountain State is pretty tough to beat if you are an avid bowhunter.

If you are a trophy gun hunter, chances are you'll head for one of the more remote areas in the state, such as places in Randolph, Webster or Pendleton counties. You might even head south to one of those counties in the southern coalfields region where gun hunting is permitted.

PUBLIC LAND OPTIONS
Now there is another option that is open to you. There are four wildlife management areas (WMA) and one state forest where they have implemented a 14-inch or wider antler spread restriction (ear tip to ear tip), and also instituted an annual bag limit of one antlered deer for all seasons combined. These areas were first opened in 2006, so this quality deer management approach is still in its developmental stages. (Continued)

The four WMAs include: Beech Fork (7,531 acres), Bluestone Lake (18,019 acres), Burnsville Lake (12,579 acres) and McClintic (3,655 acres). The state forest is Coopers Rock (12,713 acres). Combined, these five areas take in almost 55,000 acres of public land where the focus is to produce better than average bucks. Let's face it, if you are an avid whitetail hunter, a rack with a spread of 15 to 18 inches is a pretty decent buck and would qualify as a "trophy" in most parts of the Appalachian Region.

COOPERS ROCK STATE FOREST
Coopers Rock State Forest is an interesting area, as a decent chunk of it borders the Cheat River Canyon. It is billy-goat steep with huge rock outcroppings breaking off the precipice of the ridge in toward the river. While Coopers Rock is close to Morgantown, access is somewhat limited.

Given these parameters, this forest has been occasionally producing some nice bucks for the past 30 years. The problem here has been getting a big buck out once you have killed and tagged the deer. A few enterprising hunters I know will have a person drop them off on top of a ridge, then if they do kill a buck, they drag the deer down off the river face where someone comes upriver to an established rendezvous point to pick them up.

A few other folks I know will hide wheeled buck totes. So, if they do have a successful hunt, they have an aid to rely upon in assisting them with their efforts in getting the animal back to their vehicle. This can be fairly rough country in areas. If you plan on getting back from the road more than a mile or so, make certain you take the necessary precaution in informing someone of the general area you plan to focus your efforts on.