CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) – Hunting seasons for the 2023-2024 year are drawing closer and closer!

The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources has released its yearly pamphlet for hunting rules and regulations for the upcoming seasons between July 2023 and June 2024.

One new detail for hunting licenses this year is that the WVDNR is now offering nonresident lifetime hunting, trapping and fishing licenses in lieu of the equivalent annual licenses. For more information on buying a hunting license as a resident or nonresident, visit the DNR’s website.

The table below includes a basic list of opening and closing dates for hunting seasons as well as daily bag limits, possession limits and season limits for each type of game.

• Notes:
  • For this table, split seasons are being listed as “Wild Boar Gun-1″/”Wild Boar Gun-2,” etc.
  • Any species with an “*” beside it means the game must be checked/registered electronically.
  • More regulations information on species with a “*” or a “**” beside it can be found in the DNR’s “Hunting and Trapping Regulations Summary, July 2023-June 2024.“

While there is a limited season for trapping coyotes**, skunks, opossums and weasels, the season to hunt these game as well as woodchucks, English sparrows, European Starlings and pigeons runs year round with no daily bag, possession or season limits, according to the DNR.

The DNR’s hunting guide also says there is no open season for animals including elk, owls, hawks, falcons, eagles, and song and insectivorous birds. However, while crow hunting is a split season, the DNR says “nuisance crows,” which are defined as crows that commit “depredations upon ornamental or shade trees, agricultural crops, home gardens, livestock, or wildlife, or when concentrated so as to constitute a health hazard and or other nuisance,” can be killed at any time.

For animals such as geese, ducks, mourning doves, gallinules, rails, woodcock and common snipe, hunters are required to get a Harvest Information Program registration.

Some things the DNR says hunters should be aware of going into this hunting season include changes to the season dates and open counties for antlerless deer, fall wild turkey and black bear. This will also be the first year that Special Youth, Class Q and Class XS bear season will be a split season in the counties open to bear hunting.

Another change, according to the DNR, is that during the muzzleloader deer season, firearms including a single-shot, muzzle-loading pistol or rifle that have a bore diameter of .38 caliber or larger and use encapsulated propellant charge loading from the breech and the projectile loaded from the muzzle will be legal. However, these firearms cannot be used during the Mountaineer Heritage Season.

Any deer harvested on Nov. 20 or Nov. 21 in Barbour, Jackson, Mason and Upshur Counties must be taken to a designated Biological Game Examination Station. This is part of a three-year study to help biologists manage deer populations in the Mountain State.