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How many bucks question

I have some questions that I know you guys can straigten out for me. How many bucks can we kill total with all weapons here in WV? Can we kill 2 with a bow?

In Mercer Co. without any extra tags. bow, 1 buck, gun, 1 buck, black powder 1 buck. If you buy an extra bow tag and and extra gun tag, you can kill 2 bucks with a bow, 1 with a gun and 0 with a b.p. gun. Or you can kill one with a bow and 2 with a gun and 0 with b.p. bottom line 3 is all you can kill in Mercer. and most other counties. and like I said on the other thread your base license cover 1 with a bow, 1 with a gun, and 1 with a b.p. you have to check each county.

Total number of bucks that you can legally kill is three (3). Page 13 2012 whitetail deer hunting seasons The maximum annual bag limit (excluding special urban archery season) may include no more than 3 antlered bucks. This is on the side of the page in orange.

But you have to pay for an extra buck tag for bow or gun season?

Actually you can kill 3 with a bow, 2 with a rifle, 2 with a muzzleloader , and up to 4 in some counties. In fact, in the northern counties where you have to kill a doe after the first buck before you can kill a second buck, you can kill a buck to legally qualify for your doe. So you can legally kill around 10-12 bucks legally.

Why? Because it only counts as a buck if it has 1 3 inch spike. Someone can kill button bucks, bucks with antlers less than 3 inches., and bucks that have already shed( which is why I don't like the late youth and family doe hunts, plus the fact that a lot of buttons are out wandering around by themselves and a lot are big enough to look like a doe to most hunters).

Why do I mention this? Because biologically, bucks are still bucks. They say that buttons make up about 20% of the doe kill. If they say they had 50,000 does killed. Biologically, they had around 40,000 does killed and 10,000 button bucks killed plus however many shed bucks killed during the late season. What that means is that you can add approx 25% to the number of bucks killed that are actually counted as does.

Not if your are a property owner and hunt on your property. Yes if you hunt other than your own property, but even purchasing these "extra" buck tags you can still only kill a total of three for the year.

Well my questions are about legal bucks. 3 inches or more. Do you have to pay for an extra tag for a buck in bow season and one for gun season?

yes you must buy an extra tag to take more than 2 buck deer,you can kill 2 bucks with bow but must buy extra bow tag . hoppies56

You can legally kill 3 bucks period. If you buy 2 additional bow tags 1 of them have to be antlerless. So if you want to kill 3 bucks with bow 1 of them must be killed during gun season where you can substitute a bow.

You can only take 1 legal buck in the 4 bow counties. My point is that the 3 inch rule is an arbitrary man made rule. A buck is a buck biologically whether it has 3 inch spikes , 2 inch spikes, buttons, or a ten point.

I understand gobbler but my point is if we kill a buck with a bow then we would be done with one and done. I think that would affect the sale of extra buck tags in gun season and an ultimate decline in revenue. Which is why I don't think it would happen

I understand gobbler but my point is if we kill a buck with a bow then we would be done with one and done. I think that would affect the sale of extra buck tags in gun season and an ultimate decline in revenue. Which is why I don't think it would happen

Babysaph, you are killing gobbler with your double posts. Especially since he still has double vision problems. I hope you get better fast Greg.

Saw in the Charleston paper where a guy shot a doe with antlers, so how do they count that one? Should that have counted as one of his buck tags or would this be his doe before he could get his 2nd buck? That's a perplexing issue...

the laws doesn't say doe or buck. It says antlered or anterless.

Yeah, they have to draw the limit somewhere. Same with gobbler season, they say bearded turkey not gobbler because there are bearded hens. But every year an additional 10,000 or so bucks are killed and checked and credited as antlerless deer. An antlered doe may occur once every 4-5 years. I know the guy that killed the antlered doe. He''s one of the pharmacists at the rite-aid I go to at Big Chimney.

One and done.

Guys, 3 antlered 3 inches or better bucks statewide. Where in the world did you come up with 10-12 or 5 or even 4? At a 15-20 percent button harvest in doe season, that equals 10-12 thosand more. Not 4 buttonheads per succesfull deer hunter. God Bless

I think gobbler was referring to the number of does we can take and any deer less than 3 inches is considered a doe.

Yes, that was my point.

One per season: 1 bow, 1 gun, 1 muzzleloader. No extra buck tags. This would gave all an opporunity to get that monster buck and still reduce the number of bucks killed for many only hunt one of those seasons.

Reading these posts shows why there is a problem here with the current hunting system, They have made the rules/limits and seasons too complex. They need to use the kiss method and set 3 seasons bow, muzzleloader and gun and set limit for the state such as 4- two does and 2 bucks. Im not saying 4 is the perfect number just using it as an example. Bow could be used in all 3 seasons, muzzleloader could be used in gun season and keep the gun season at its two weeks.

I know that. I was addressing the fact that if 15-20 percent of the doe harvest was composed of bucks, button heads or smaller than three inches, it isn't logical to address that a hunter can kill 10-12 bucks a year on average. It would at best, according to the numbers on average to say that 14000 bucks are harvested by this. 14000 ndivided up between the number of doe tags sold won't equal one, much less 4,5,6,6,7,8,9,10,11, or 12. I understood the point just pointed out that isn't a very logical arguement or point.

I addressed this in another thread. I am certain the biggest threat our states deer herd that wears horns faces is poaching or not checking harvest to get accurate numbers. Last year the Jefferson National Forest showed one bow kill. 1. It is just an example that people are not going to drive 20-30 miles or minutes out of their way to check a deer. And it just goes to show that we need more sensible wardens. We get the poaching stopped, we get so many more bucks to maturity.

A call in system won't stop poaching but it will certasinly help managers make better decisions. No regs in the world will sto it either. Fix the blatant abuse of our welfare and SS programs, put these bums to work or let them starve, you fixd the problem. God Bless

As of now a additional archery or firearm deer hunting stamp for a resident cost $21, nonresidents, $37 archery and $43 firearms, 3 buck season limit. I don't think the state will ever go to a "one your done" because of the lost revenue. What about a one buck limit on your base license(archery,firearms,muzzleloader)and a second additional buck which could be taken with archery, firearm, muzzleloader, on an additional buck stamp,for a total season limit ot two antlered deer. The additional buck tag would cost $25 for residents, with the land owner require to pay $25 for a second buck also and $40 for nonresidents. What do you think?

It will never be oe and done.

I have been beaten up on here multiple times for suggesting that landowners need to have a license similar to what they did for senior citizens. A ten year license for 25 dollars so that the DNR can add those license numbers to collect more of OUR SHARE of federal matching dollars from the PR tax that we have ALREADY paid, and is going to other states now. I think it's ridiculous that the landowner, his wife, all their kids, and the owners and wifes parents can kill the full limit of deer including all the extra tags for nothing.

I agree gobbler. I am sure that will go over well though. LOL

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