I understand that West Virginia now has a sizeable bear population and that there is a hunting season for them this year. Who knows about this and can tell about it?

Here you go WV Bear Regs

Here are the Ilegalities AND I have a question about one
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It is illegal to:
hunt bears with the use of bait.
feed bears.
hunt a bear with (a) a shotgun using ammunition loaded with more than one solid ball, or (b) a rifle of less than .25 caliber using rimfire ammunition or (c) a pistol or revolver using a straight-walled case of less than .357 magnum cartridge or a bottle-necked case of less than .24 caliber or (d) a muzzleloading pistol of less than .38 caliber.
hunt bear between 1/2 hour after sunset and 1/2 hour before sunrise.
kill or attempt to kill any bear through the use of poison, explosives, snares, steel traps or deadfalls.
shoot at or kill a cub bear weighing less than 100 pounds or to kill any bear accompanied by such cub.
pursue a bear, after the chase has begun, with dogs not in use at the beginning of the hunt.
kill more than one bear per year.
organize for commercial purposes, or to professionally outfit a bear hunt, or to give or receive any consideration whatsoever or any donation in money, goods or services in connection with a bear hunt.
(for nonresidents) to hunt bear with dogs, except in certain designated counties during the bear gun season (see Dog Training Regulations).
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My question is bolded and pertains to letter B
Does this mean I can't use a rifle? Or Any rifle as long as it is not rimfire?

Just a little confusion in wording.

[ 11-26-2002, 20:29: Message edited by: amosgreg ]

Greg -
I see they have outlawed C4. I guess the M79: Granade Luncher is out too.

Turtle

Greg, You can use any centerfire rifle you wish. A rimfire of 25 caliber or above. Same regulations apply to deer.

Hope this helps.

Just to clarify my general answer a little, no you can not use a Tommy Gun, Uzzie, etc. etc.

Guys,

You also have to pre-purchase a bear damage stamp in WV. Would be embarrassing to show with a bear and not have the stamp.

On the heavy weapons, I actually know the cause of the restriction on use of automatic weapons while hunting.

Started out as a joke ... the then class 3 dealer had just received a new-in-box M60 for a customer. A pack of DNR guys happened to walk in the door while the gun was on the glass topped counter. The fellas made the usual "oohs and Aahhs" over the piece, and the dealer absently said "yup, getting ready for deer season." Not realizing this was a joke, the DNR guys said flatly that the use of such a weapon was proscribed. The dealer said "Show me."

They could not do so as it actually was not in the regulations at that time (late summer 1987). They were agahst to say the least ... and they corrected the oversight in the succeeding regulations.

And ... yes, it was MY M60.

mstarling,
Have you been out after deer yet? If so any luck?

Amos,

Yesterday was first day of gun season. three of us hunted on private land in Putnam county. We saw two doe and 1 4 point. The 4 point was taken at 7 am.

Today I hit a spike at 8 am. Had a bullet performance problem as outlined in a post on the Big Game thread.

Makes 3 for the year so far. Two with a bow and 1 with a rifle. Will go with for the next few days and see what happens.

The big buck never reappeared after I missed him with the bow. They get to be big by getting smart. I tend to doubt this one survived the first day of gun season though.

Hope to make at least one with each catagory of weapon (bow, rifle, pistol, muzzle loader). Was successful at that last year. Kinda livens things up to try do the grand slam thing ... and we have really too many deer here at the moment. Will go back to the bow after I get the pistol and ML deer if I do.