doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com OT - Hunting in Virginia/West Virginia

I'll soon be moving to Buchanan County, VA to go to school, and I know very little about hunting opportunities in the area. Was wondering if any of you folks have ever hunted in the area. I know there's a pretty good grouse population, but don't know any specific locations other than within Jefferson and George Washington National Forests.

Also, any experience at preserves in the area would be helpful too as I have a 1 year old GSP that will need regular exposure.

I should note that I will be about 15 miles south of the WV border and maybe 20-30 from the KY border.

Thanks in advance!

Will

Kentucky and Virginia are just fine, but stay out of Hillbilly!!!

A friend lives in Front Royal, and hunts the GWNF often. He enjoys hunting there.

The remark about hillbilly is just silly, pay it no mind.

I'm a hillbilly from the mountains of Tennessee. Hillbillies don't scare me!

My aunt, recalling the story of the Matewan shootout between Sid Hatfield, with his beloved Winchester, and the Baldwin-Felts(?) detective agency, "Those boys (Meaning the detectives) did just fine everywhere else but they should have known better and stayed out of HILLBILLY"!!! Everytime she recalled that story, my aunt and just about every coalminer's daughter in Matewan at that time had a major schoolgirl crush on Sid Hatfield, she had a smile on her face and a gleam in her eye!!!

So everytime someone asks about WV I always say, "You better stay out of Hillbilly"

I have never hunted Virginia and it has been a while since I have gotten to West Virginia, but as to the latter state, there is plenty of area to hunt. Two National forests as well as state lands. Be cautious of trespassing on private land. Written permission is required by law and the locals are resentful of encroachers, particularly deer hunters. The people of W.V. are friendly folk and if approached for permission will be polite in their answer. If no, it will be firm and if yes it will be with a smile and possibly a tag along. When I hunted there I saw alot of turkey and grouse!

I remember one year as I dragged out my deer a young felow and his wife stopped their pickup to help me- announcing: "We just stopped to look at your deer!" As we loaded it into my truck the young man related how the night before he had switched on the backyard lights to find several deer there. He then said; I went un got ma bow and just filled the yard with arrus!

Will, sorry but I just had to say that!!!
I downloaded the rules and regulations from West Virginia web site, some of them especially the waterfowl are a little tricky everything else is pretty straight forward. Only residents are allowed to hunt boars. Being from the mountains of Tennessee, terrain wise you won't encounter anything you haven't seen before.
The people there you will absolutely fall in love with, friendly, helpful and sincere!!!

You'll fit in fine- being from the Great Vol. State that gave us T. Nash Buckingham- just remember- it's "West-By God- Virginia"! RWTF- the late G.B. Evans wrote many grouse stories about hunting in both VA and West (B-G) VA!! Lucky man-and with a Purdey double too!!

Thanks for the input guys! I expect to mainly be chasing grouse. For everything else I'll probably go back to Tennessee.

I camped and rode bikes in the area last summer and saw a lot of grouse and deer too - I'm pretty excited. The grouse pop. in TN is quite a bit lower from what I've witnessed.

Hi:

For the last 20 years I have been stomping the woods of the Roanoke area looking for game. I have found turkeys and deer but no grouse or pheasants.

I went on a three road trip to Bristol and all of the backwoods areas that I could find in S.W. Virginia. The area contains a large number of defunct farms that have grown over with cover. I asked on this site if anybody hunts in that area and all replies came back negative. I would try that area as it looked too good not to hold upland birds.

One okd timer told me how great hunting in the GWNF was but he did not say when it wss good, past or present All of the hunters that I talked to about hunting upland game said the same thing. It used to be great but I don't even keep a dog anymore.

One person on this site said that their son hunted from Roanoke to Buchanan and did not see a bird.

I hope you do much better than I did but if you want deer and turkeys, you will be happy. Oh yes, forget about eating the fish from the local waters as the fish have excessive amounts of PPCBs in them for human consumptations.

Good luck,

Franchi