Man you hit the nail on the head there! Our land in Buchanan is right on the line of McDowell Co, Wv. I love it up there but I won’t camp due to the thoughts of all the legal trouble if I had to shoot someone breaking in my camper at night haha.
I agree with this. I live in the eastern panhandle but I've worked all over the state and brown bear's comment is no lie. There have been some hunters kill big public land bucks in the Monongahela National Forest which goes through the eastern panhandle but it is also over a million acres and in some of the most mountainous and steep terrain in the state. I think there was a hunter I saw kill a huge buck out towards Huttonsville a few years ago. The mountain laurel and rhododendron in the higher elevations is so thick you can't see further than 10 yards in front of you. My buddy and I hunted spruce knob years ago in rifle season and saw a scrap line that went about 700 yards and the trees were 3-5 inches in diameter but we didn't see a single buck the entire day from 6 am till dark. So I guess it just depends and the weather is also a factor. Bow season wouldn't be bad due to earlier in the year and not having to worry about the possibility of snow as much but still finding them and being able to have a shooting lane through the laurel is another thing too.
Another good option if you don’t mind going a little farther North would be right across the line in OH. Before we started going west every fall I bow hunted public land in Monroe and Washington counties(I believe would have to look to confirm) and had good success.
The Mon definitely holds some giants and they have endless room to roam. I've never hunted it but have a great friend who has hunted it his whole life and has never killed what I would call a big buck. Gets photos during the summer and fall but never seen one on the hoof. Those old mountain bucks are hard to come by especially with archery equipment and early season. OP you may think I'm joking about the issues in Southern WV but I'm dead serious. It's happens all to often. They will do the same to an ATV if located.
I wasn't gonna throw this out there but that is what I would do. Simply drive across the OH river and hunt much bigger deer. I had one heck of a spot over there on private before I moved from WV.
Best of luck.
Being public land hunting pressure is going to change every step you take based on where the other hunters are. Try using ONX or something to scout and try and find good locations of oaks that produce acorns or open fields. It's hard at elevation with the spruce, laurel and rhododendron to find a good feeding area especially if it's public land with thousands of acres. Otherwise you'll just be doing what my buddy and I did the first year we went to spruce knob and not seeing squat, a hiking trip not a hunting trip lol.
