Hunting in West Virginia

West Virginia's bowhunters have come out in force to support the state's ban on firearm deer hunting in four southern counties.

Logan, McDowell, Mingo and Wyoming counties have been bowhunting-only since 1979, "when Division of Natural Resources officials decreed the deer population too depleted to further support" a firearms season, The Charleston Gazette reports. But the counties have since "gradually developed a reputation for producing trophy bucks" for bowhunters, the article said.

National Rifle Association officials in Virginia appear to have spurred a postcard campaign aimed at urging West Virginia to lift the firearm ban, The Gazette reports. "The postcards incensed so many bowhunters, they chartered a bus to transport them from a rallying point in Beckley" to a Flatwoods meeting of the state's Natural Resources Commission, the article said. "Other hunters drove two to three hours to attend. Their numbers swelled the midwinter meeting's attendance, which usually numbers two to three dozen, to nearly 200."

But The Register-Herald of Beckley hears from an NRA official who says the bowhunters "overreacted."

"A few months ago, the NRA decided to poll its membership in West Virginia after some had inquired about removing the firearms ban," the article said. "But so few members favored changing the status that the NRA decided to go no further with the idea."

The article quotes Jordan Austin of the NRA's Virginia-based Institute for Legislative Action, who said the offending postcards were part of the survey.