Mountaineer Heritage Season offers a chance to hunt like our ancestors – WV MetroNews

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — This week, West Virginia hunters will get a chance to try hunting the way the original Mountaineers did it. The Mountaineer Heritage season is open from Thursday through Sunday.

The season allows hunters to use only primitive implements. Sidelock or flintlock muzzleloading rifles or pistols are the only firearms allowed. In-line muzzleloaders are not legal for the Heritage Season nor are scopes. Archery enthusiasts are allowed only long bows or recurve bows. You’re compound bow will have to hang on its hook for this time.

“It’s a special season and it’s kind of an all encompassing big game season,” said Vinnie Johnson, Biologist with the West Virginia DNR.

The season enables hunters to kill a deer, bear, or turkey provided they hunt with one of those primitive firearms or bows. The season started several years ago and has become a big hit with sportsmen for a variety of reasons. For some it cuts the monotony of cabin fever and gives them a chance to get back into the woods well after hunting season. The season also enables hunters to go after big game with snow on the ground which doesn’t always happen during the regular fall seasons.

The snowfall could potentially make killing a bear less likely, but not always.

“It really depends on where you’re at,” Johnson explained in a recent edition of West Virginia Outdoors. “Some of our areas that are heavy bear country, there’s still a good opportunity you’re going to see a bear.”

The bumper crops of mast across the West Virginia landscape this year will also keep bears out of hibernation longer. The sunshine and warm weather forecasted into the weekend may also be a plus for keeping bears active and moving in the upcoming season.

“If there’s food on the landscape, they’re gong to be out moving around. They go into their dens when there’s no food left and they need to reserve for the remainder of the winter season,” he added.

Killing a big buck may be tricky. Some have already started to drop antlers. The season allows for either sex, but for those who have already killed two bucks from this past fall’s hunting seasons, you cannot kill another buck. If a hunter shoots an antlerless buck, which turns out to be a buck that already dropped antlers, hunters can check that as an antlerless deer.

Turkeys are also legal. Unlike deer, turkeys and bears, do not count against the bag limit from last year. However, hunters to need to have their 2026 hunting license. Although a lot of the purists like to not only hunt with an old time rifle, they also like to dress the part and will go into the woods wearing buckskins. Primitive garb or not, modern safety is still the rule and since it’s a firearms season for deer, you’ll need to wear blaze orange.