| The 2014 drastic drop in the number of bucks killed is reflected in the proposed regulations for the 2015 antlerless deer hunting season in West Virginia.
"The season framework is very similar or the same as in years past," said DNR Game Management Supervisor Gary Foster.
"There will be a lot of counties that are the same, but a lot of counties will be a lot more restrictive. That's primarily due to that decreased buck gun harvest."
Under the proposed regulations for 2015 Boone, Tucker, Wayne, Webster and portions of Clay, Fayette, Greenbrier, Kanawha, Mineral, Pendleton and Raleigh counties would have no antlerless hunting season.
Hunters in Randolph, Mercer, Nicholas, Pocahontas and portions of Clay, Fayette Raleigh counties will need to apply for a limited number of tags in 2015 and the bag limit will be one antlerless deer.
The biggest change may be a reduction in the antlerless bag limit in selected counties.
Hunters in Barbour, Braxton, Cabell, Grant, Hancock, Kanawha (north of Elk River and west of Corridor G), Lincoln, Marshall, Pleasants, Preston, Summers, Taylor, and Upshur Counties will see their bag limit for 2015 set at one antlerless deer.
The other major change will be in the number of counties where hunters are required to kill an antlerless deer before they could kill their second buck.
Thirty-one counties carried the so called "earn a second buck" restriction in 2014.
The number this year is down to nine counties or parts of counties. Those are Calhoun, Doddridge, Gilmer, part of Greenbrier, Hampshire, Part of Mineral, Morgan, Ritchie, and Wood Counties. The bag limit in those counties for antlerless deer remained at three as proposed by game biologists.
The bag limit will also remain at three without the "earn a second buck" restriction in Berkeley, Brooke, Hardy, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Lewis, Marion, Mason, Monongalia, Monroe, Ohio, Putnam, Roane, Tyler, Wetzel, and Wirt County. The eastern portion of Pendleton County was also added to the three antlerless deer limit for 2015.
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