Public Land hunting in West Virginia.

[BeginnerBuckHunter]

After hunting private land for most of my life I’m venturing out into public land this coming season. Our private land has plenty of doe running around and a few doe bedding areas. I only know of two bucks taken from our property in the last 10 years but there is a lot of hunting pressure in the area. I decided I wanted to see more deer and especially try to score a decent buck. I’ve only taken one deer with my bow this past season and it was my first with bow. I’ve taken 2 others by rifle but I am planning on primarily hunting with my bow from this point forward. I’m looking for any advice one is willing to offer. I know I will be looking for some mobile setups and opinions on cover scent vs none. As well as deer attractants and ultimately help getting on the deer. Thanks in advance!

[thepennsylvanian]

This was my first year hunting WV, the northern panhandle wma's, I found success this year on two bucks by finding my hunting spots in July. One the first buck, which was far from a monster, I canoed across a lake to get to a spot that is extremely difficult to get to by foot. The deer were bedding on the leeward side and 1/3 of the mountain. I also went in during a heavy down pour, right before the weather cleared out a bit. That was in bow season.


On the last day of rifle, I used terrian to get away from all of the last day deer drives. I used a very steep hillside to access a bottom far behind where all the hunters were driving deer, mostly doe were shot as I found out later. But getting behind the driver's got me in position to intercept bucks squirting out the back. And boy did they ever, I saw two before I got a crack at one nice 9pt.

Then as I was field dressing home three cam past, one was a very large 10 that I had wounded in archery on a very high back shot... The WV public land offers some great property that has great opportunity.

[thepennsylvanian]

As far as setups, I ran with one this past year. A summit openshot climber. It worked awesome in our neck of the woods. I had no problem finding trees to get into. I would like to add a saddle to my setup just to have the option. On a few of the areas I used my mountian bike to get back to the areas I wanted to hunt alot quicker than walking in. I didn't do anything for scent control this year, I didn't have much trouble with it at all.

[Brian1986]

Congratulations on venturing out onto public land. A good place to start is checking out the all time best tactical threads in the Deer Hunting section on the site. It's a gold mine of strategic hunting information. Additionally any topic you're interested in you can find on the search page. You're going to find that the primary strategy the successful guys on here use is to find spots where the bucks are spending their daylight hours (bedding) & hunt as close to that bedding as you can without the buck nailing you while being mobile so that you don't burn spots out. Dan Infalt has several good videos on his YouTube page as well as his DVD series breaking down his strategy & thought process along with numerous kills. I am a fairly experienced hunter and have been a member on the forum about a year. In my opinion the hunting beast forum is the best real world hunting resource out there. So dive in and start learning! If you have questions the guys on here are friendly and helpful. Hopefully that gets you pointed in the right direction.

[brancher147]

It really depends on what part of the state you will be hunting and what wma's. There is everything from rolling hills and cropfields to straight up highwalls and reclaimed mine land to big 4000 ft steep mountains. Most anywhere you hunt in the Mountain State, Dan's hill country videos will get you on the right track, and you can adapt and learn your own style based for your particular terrain from there. A lot of good info searching and reading old posts on this site also. But I would recommend starting to scout now and scout a lot, and have spots ready to go come hunting season. Then plan on a lot of in season scouting to fine tune things and getting a mobile setup. As far as scent control, I would forget about it in the steep mountains because you are going to sweat-I would focus more on hunting the wind and more importantly the thermals, but that's up to you. Any bait or attractant is illegal on public land during hunting season. Good luck.

[BeginnerBuckHunter]

It really depends on what part of the state you will be hunting and what wma's. There is everything from rolling hills and cropfields to straight up highwalls and reclaimed mine land to big 4000 ft steep mountains. Most anywhere you hunt in the Mountain State, Dan's hill country videos will get you on the right track, and you can adapt and learn your own style based for your particular terrain from there. A lot of good info searching and reading old posts on this site also. But I would recommend starting to scout now and scout a lot, and have spots ready to go come hunting season. Then plan on a lot of in season scouting to fine tune things and getting a mobile setup. As far as scent control, I would forget about it in the steep mountains because you are going to sweat-I would focus more on hunting the wind and more importantly the thermals, but that's up to you. Any bait or attractant is illegal on public land during hunting season. Good luck.

Thanks, I’m in the eastern panhandle, I will definitely be reading up on old posts and looking into Dans videos. I have plans to start scouting this weekend. I have a few areas I’m going to check out I’ve seen on ON X maps. I thought scent control would pretty much be out of the question just have to learn the wind and thermals. Having always hunted private I had plenty of does and always the same routine. I’d get busted every once in a while but they always came back in a day or two. Now it’s time to really put in the work. Thanks for the advice.

[BeginnerBuckHunter]

I appreciate everyone giving advice and information. I will definitely be looking into the old posts and videos available. I’m sure I’ll have a lot of questions in the future especially after this weekends scouting trip.

[brancher147]

When I saw you were in eastern panhandle I was going to mention hunting mature forest and mountain laurel bedding but there is an active thread going in the deer hunting forum. Check it out.

[brancher147]

Not sure why this posted twice...

[Matt Gill]

Good luck. I’m in western wv close to the Ohio river but I also hunt toward the central part of the state. The county I live in has very limited public but I have two large wmas within an hour and 15 minutes. You may also look into land owned by mike Ross inc. he’s a oil and gas business owner who owns all kinds of land in our state. You simply call his office and they will mail you a permit. There’s plenty of good bucks on wv public land. I agree with trying to locate bedding areas and focusing you’re time around them. As far as scent control, I say playing the wind is key as it can be tricky in steep terrain. Again, good luck!