cranberry / williams river info
West Virginia
Its been a long but good bow season here in greenbrier county ive had great encounters with shooter bucks but couldnt close the deal Ive let a lot of young deer pass this year. I had a 140-150 inch buck a mile from my house all summer only to find him dead with his head cut off on november 5th . This year for rifle season im looking for something different . I plan to spend all week in cranberry glades / williams river area and im looking for advice from hunters who have hunted the area before . Looking for things to pack to make the hunt better , how many hunters to expect , how far back ill have to go to get away from others etc. good luck ! turn em red!
I hunted the Cranberry area 6 times. I have camped on the river at the 5 mile marker and hunted up and camped off of the Scenic highway and hunted. We never done very well, best kill was a 19-1/4" wide 8 pt. I have seen 120" class deer hanging in camps. The last couple of times we hunted it from the scenic highway. I have seen more deer and bears up there, seems to be more food. IMO the scenic highway is better hunting.
Did you make it to the cranberry/ see any deer? I thought about heading in the end of the week, weather permitting. I bicycled gate to gate and back the 1st day of bow season. Saw 3 humans and more bear sign than deer.
I hunted the Williams river all week . Seen very few deer . Seen lots of bear sign .came home and killed the buck I was after all year .
The areas you described are low deer density places. It is huge country with deer scattered in pockets of food. And, some years are better then others in any given area. Meaning a Red oak stand along the Scenic Highway may hit every several years in a row but, deer will rarely concentrate in that area back to back because they will prefer a different stand. In other words, just know those deer move. They move big time from year to year.
People don't realize that most big woods deer are not territorial like farm country deer, out of sheer necessity. Its that or starve. So, to kill them in that country you have to move until you find a concentration of them. Then hunt them. Remember those areas and, always check them in your scouting. Just understand if you had an area with a huntable deer concentration last year, it doesn't mean they will be there the following year even if there is food there. So, you gotta look until you find them. And, sometimes they are not that far off the road. Other times, you will fidn the many miles from the roads.
You won't experience enough hunting pressure anywhere you hunt that it will affect the deer movement much. You will not see many deer. Expect a handful all week long if you are lucky. And, expect and, prepare to pack it out if you do kill one. And, don't expect big deer. The habitat is so poor that alot of the older deer have smaller racks.
Good luck and God Bless
