West Virginia's buck firearms season opens Monday, Nov. 23, 2026, and runs through Sunday, Dec. 6. In Wetzel County, those two weeks matter more than they do in most of the surrounding counties. The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources' 2025-2026 harvest report counted 1,374 deer checked in Wetzel. Of those, 620 were bucks taken during the gun season, about 45 percent of the county's total. Across all of DNR District 1, buck gun accounted for 6,675 of 20,239 deer, roughly a third.
So the gun season carries more of Wetzel's deer year than it does in most of the district. Many of the errands that come with it, like processing, donating, and stocking up, end at addresses south along Route 2 in Tyler County.
Where Wetzel sits among its neighbors
District 1 covers the northern counties, from Hancock down through Wetzel and east to Preston and Tucker. In the 2025-2026 seasons, only two District 1 counties recorded more gun-season bucks than Wetzel.
| County, 2025-2026 seasons | Buck gun | Archery/crossbow | Total deer | Buck gun share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Preston | 1,349 | 1,573 | 4,570 | 30% |
| Harrison | 641 | 597 | 1,921 | 33% |
| Wetzel | 620 | 307 | 1,374 | 45% |
| Monongalia | 603 | 842 | 2,050 | 29% |
| Marshall | 557 | 301 | 1,285 | 43% |
| Tyler | 417 | 214 | 982 | 42% |
Tyler County is not part of District 1. It's in the table because it is the next county down the river, and its numbers look a lot like Wetzel's at a smaller scale. Ohio River counties lean on the gun season. Monongalia and Preston check in more deer with bows and crossbows than with rifles during buck season. Wetzel's archery count of 307 is about half of its buck gun count.
The 2026 season starts after a down year. WOAY reported in December 2025 that the statewide buck firearm harvest for 2025 came to 33,775, which was 18.5 percent below the year before. That season ran Nov. 24 through Dec. 7, 2025.
The calendar is wider than the buck dates
Because Wetzel is one of the counties open to antlerless firearms hunting, the gun calendar here has more than one window. The WVDNR white-tailed deer FAQ lists these antlerless dates for 2026:
- Oct. 22 to 25, already past by the time this is posted
- Nov. 23 to Dec. 6, which overlaps the whole buck season
- Dec. 10 to 13
- Dec. 28 to 31
The 2026-2027 regulations summary puts Wetzel in the group with an antlerless firearms limit of one deer per Class N or NN stamp, with no permit application required beforehand. It also leaves Wetzel off the list of nine counties where a hunter must take an antlerless deer before a second buck. The statewide regular-season limit is two antlered deer. A third is allowed only if one comes from the CWD Containment Area, and Class XS holders may take three wherever they hunt. WVDNR's hunting regulations page also lists this year's changes, including adjusted antlerless dates and open counties. All of this is general information, not legal advice. The DNR's own pages and the license you carry are what count, so check them before you head out.
Lewis Wetzel WMA is the county's big public tract
The Lewis Wetzel Wildlife Management Area covers more than 14,000 acres across Wetzel, Tyler and Doddridge counties. It's about 24 miles southeast of New Martinsville and a mile from Jacksonburg, and it's open all year. The terrain runs from 736 to 1,560 feet in elevation, with moderate to steep slopes and oak-hickory forest. Pipeline corridors from the area's oil and gas fields cut linear openings through the woods, and the DNR manages those openings as wildlife habitat.
Where you can drive depends on which side of Buffalo Run you're on.
- East of Buffalo Run: walk-in hunting only.
- West of Buffalo Run: Hastings Ridge Road is open to vehicles during the fall hunting seasons and the spring gobbler season. You get onto it at Bob Campbell Hill, Carbide or Sees Run along Buffalo Run.
- Main entrances: Arches Fork, Buffalo Run and Piney Fork off Route 20, plus Lefthand Fork on the Tyler County side.
- Class Q facility: in the upper section of Buffalo Run, for hunters with disabilities.
The WMA also has a primitive campground and a shooting range. WVDNR's District 1 directory gives directions from Jacksonburg: three-quarters of a mile south on County Route 82, or in by County Route 13.
The same directory lists two smaller public options in Wetzel. Cecil H. Underwood WMA covers 3,449 acres about ten miles south of Cameron, reached by U.S. Route 250, County Route 89 and Rice Ridge Road. Lantz Farm and Nature Preserve covers 545 acres at Route 20 and County Route 82 in Jacksonburg, and part of it is a safety zone. Both list deer among their hunting prospects.
The errand chain heads south
The license is the easy part. WVDNR's list of authorized license agents includes Walmart #2684 at 1142 South Bridge Street in New Martinsville and Martin's Hardware on Main Street in Pine Grove. The Walmart store page confirms license sales there and lists the store's phone as 304-455-6522. Licenses can also be bought online at wvhunt.com, the same site the DNR uses for checking in game.
The game check confirmation number matters for the next step. Mountainside Outdoors, at 6522 Tyler Highway in Sistersville, sells guns, ammunition and archery gear and processes wild game. Its processing page says it takes deer until Dec. 31, asks for the game check confirmation number at drop-off, and adds a $25 surcharge during opening week of West Virginia gun season. A 2026 processing flyer is posted on the same page. In a county where close to half the deer come in during those two weeks, the opening-week surcharge is the cost most likely to come up.
Farther down Route 18, Tyler Outdoor Supply at 10302 Tyler Highway in Middlebourne is another DNR license agent. It describes itself as a hunting and outdoor one-stop shop and has been open since 2000. Closer to home, Alta's Bait & Outdoors at 128 N. 6th Ave. in Paden City is listed in a hunting-brand dealer directory at 304-337-8517.
Donated deer leave the county too
The same pattern holds for donations. Under WVDNR's Hunters Helping the Hungry program, hunters take donated deer to a certified participating processor. The processor cuts and stores the venison until a food bank picks it up. Processors in the program are certified by USDA or the West Virginia Department of Agriculture, and the DNR pays them $3 per pound of processed venison.
The current roster has no participating processor in Wetzel or Marshall County. The closest one is Pyles & Moore Heritage Cuts, 1040 Woodburn Run Road, Alma, in Tyler County. Mountaineer Food Bank in Gassaway and Facing Hunger Foodbank in Huntington pick up the venison. In 2025 the program took in 561 deer, which became 19,304 pounds of venison and 25,738 meals. If you hunt Lewis Wetzel and want to give a deer away, you'll be driving deeper into Tyler County rather than back toward the river, so plan on that before you pull the trigger.
The last weekend now shares a Saturday with Christmas in the Ville
The season's final weekend lines up with a change on the downtown calendar this year. The Wetzel-Tyler Chamber of Commerce calendar lists 2026 Christmas in the Ville for Saturday, Dec. 5, from noon to 8 p.m. The Wetzel Chronicle's 2024 announcement put that year's event and parade on Nov. 30, the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The Chronicle's 2025 recap described a 5:30 p.m. parade that lined up near Bruce Park, with vendors and kids' activities upstairs at Stalder's on Main. Thanksgiving Saturday falls in the first week of buck season, and in 2024 and 2025 the event landed there. This year it moves a week later, to the season's final Saturday, and buck season closes the next day, Sunday, Dec. 6.
The Paden City Public Library has said it will be doing face painting at Christmas in the Ville downtown. Households with a hunter in them will want to plan that Saturday around both.
If you're curious about acreage in Wetzel or Tyler County, or what a wooded parcel near Jacksonburg might be worth, the team at Pathway Real Estate Professionals is happy to walk it through with you. Start with a free home valuation, and we'll take it from there.
