Muzzleloading hunters in West Virginia need to have pre-purchased their muzzleloader tags before December 11, but hunters have until December 17 to punch their tag on a deer with their muzzleloader.

“The muzzleloader deer season is an excellent opportunity for hunters to be out when there are fewer hunters in the woods and provides an opportunity to be afield with more traditional equipment,” said West Virginia Division of Natural Resources Director Brett McMillion.

West Virginia has a short muzzleloader season at just one week. Their firearms deer season, in which muzzleloading enthusiasts can use a muzzleloader, runs from November 20-December 3. Archery hunters this year had from September 30 to December 31 to fill their tags.

Recently, West Virginia has introduced the “Mountaineer Heritage Season”, which gives muzzleloading enthusiasts an additional 4 days to hunt deer, bear and turkey. Hunters may only use primitive-style weapons, including longbows and recurve bows, muzzleloading black powder rifles and pistols with a flint-lock or percussion cap action in the Heritage Season.

No more than three antlered bucks may be harvested during the regular deer seasons and the 2024 Mountaineer Heritage Season combined. All hunters afield during this week are required to wear a minimum of 400 square inches of blaze orange.

In the muzzleloader season, only single-shot muzzleloaders, including “in-lines” and muzzleloaders using an encapsulated propellant charge that loads from the breech, with the projectile loaded from the muzzle of .38 caliber or larger, are legal. Telescopic sights are legal. A firearm that has been converted into a muzzleloader by use of a plug, or a double-barreled or swivel- barreled muzzleloader is illegal for deer hunting during the muzzleloader season.