2022 vs 2021 Deer Harvests

[DeerCamp]

Raw data below, but a couple quick takeaways:

Through 12/21 (probably should have excluded today)

+15,695 Total Deer Harvested (7,089 Bucks)

Top Counties by YOY Increase
Perry 56%
Lewis 49%
Humphreys 43%
Henderson 39%
Benton 39%
Cheatham 38%
Dickson 37%
Chester 34%
McNairy 34%
Lawrence 32%

Top Counties with YOY Decrease
Polk -18%
Hancock -8%
Union -6%
Blount -5%
Claiborne -5%
Johnson -4%
Haywood -3%
Washington -2%
Loudon -2%
Morgan -1%

Top 5 Antlered Harvest
Giles 1,717
Maury 1,560
Sumner 1,509
Montgomery 1,397
Sullivan 1,381

Antlerless Harvest Change
2021: 35.2%
2022: 37.2%

Top 5 Antlerless Harvest %
Wayne 47%
Rhea 47%
Lawrence 45%
Stewart 45%
Perry 44%

Bottom 5 Antlerless Harvest %
Polk 19%
Hancock 26%
Sevier 27%
Blount 27%
Warren 28%

 

[wsm]

Thanks for your report .

 

[BSK]

I'm still shocked by the huge increase in buck kill in western Middle TN. I guess few bucks were killed last year during the bumper acorn crop. And deer are really having to move this year with few acorns, so kill has gone up. But not many killed in my area.

 

[megalomaniac]

Amazing how the conversation on this board for 2022 season is how hard the hunting has been. . Yet total kill is sig up.

Weird obersrvations... that are jus that... observations by a single Individual. WAY fewer ML shots heard this season. Average number of rifle shots. Dunno how to interpret this, but the fewer number of ML shots were very noticeable. On a poor acorn year, I would have expected ML kills to be up. Byt rifle more than made up for it

 

[Jcalder]

Wish my counties doe kill wasn't up so much. They've slaughtered them

 

[Ski]

Amazing how the conversation on this board for 2022 season is how hard the hunting has been. . Yet total kill is sig up.

Weird obersrvations... that are jus that... observations by a single Individual.

Agreed. Doesn't add up at all. However, the complaints aren't that there are no bucks in general. Everything I've seen is folks claiming fewer mature bucks and weak rut activity.

My own experience this season has been very late scraping/rubbing and much fewer mature bucks, but I did fill both of my tags. Last year was a banner year for big mature bucks in terms of what I saw on cam but I only filled one tag and he wasn't big. So the actual harvest report doesn't necessarily reflect the hunt quality, at least for me.

 

[RockMcL]

Look at Hunters Tool Box post by killintime. Season seems way odd to me but our family harvest numbers are about normal for and County numbers seem ok but that is small sample.

Could be the odd behavior being reported frustrated a lot of hunters and a bunch of young bucks went down...

This ain't politics so expect computer software to be able to add.

 

[BSK]

Amazing how the conversation on this board for 2022 season is how hard the hunting has been. . Yet total kill is sig up.

Weird obersrvations... that are jus that... observations by a single Individual. WAY fewer ML shots heard this season. Average number of rifle shots. Dunno how to interpret this, but the fewer number of ML shots were very noticeable. On a poor acorn year, I would have expected ML kills to be up. Byt rifle more than made up for it

That is what we experienced. MZ kill way down, gun way up. But sure couldn't tell it locally by the number of shots heard.

 

[BSK]

I would love to know the age structure of the harvested bucks in my area. Up? Down? The same? I could understand the increase in buck harvest in my area if the majority are younger bucks. Most of the hunters in the area are seeing a lot of yearlings and 2 1/2s. It's the older bucks that haven't been that visible.

 

[Ski]

Something else to consider is that the harvest report only lists antlered males, antlerless males, and females. It doesn't detail the quality or age of the bucks being taken. A spike and a mature 10pt check the same box. What I personally saw this season was higher than normal young bucks & much fewer mature bucks. If that was the same for much of the state and lots of those young bucks were killed, then harvest report would show lots of bucks being killed.

 

[Ski]

I would love to know the age structure of the harvested bucks in my area. Up? Down? The same? I could understand the increase in buck harvest in my area if the majority are younger bucks. Most of the hunters in the area are seeing a lot of yearlings and 2 1/2s. It's the older bucks that haven't been that visible.

Me too. When I fill out a tag I have to report how many points the antlers had per side and total. I know antlers aren't the best way to gauge age but in general terms you can figure 2yr+ are 8pts, 3yr+ are 10pts. If they would provide a graph of the antler specifics we have to report then it would be easier to extrapolate a general idea of the age structure being harvested.

 

[BSK]

Good point. Would love to see the antler-point data.

But as Popcorn pointed out. All those older-class bucks have to be somewhere, so someone has access to them. I don't for a minute think the buck age-structure has declined in the region. So there's a lot of 3 1/2+ year-old bucks out and around. But they sure weren't "up in the hills." I strongly suspect they were packed into the bottomlands, where a few wet-ground oaks produced acorns.

Most of my clients own upland ridge-and-hollow oak habitat. Most in the region with that habitat had a terrible year. However, one client owns both upland hardwoods and bottomland ag, and they said all of the bucks on the property were packed into the bottoms.

 

[Remington700]

Always interesting to see the changes through the years. I grew up hunting Hardeman and Fayette which always had huge numbers. They are still up there but other counties have passed them. I know I hear a lot less shots these days.

 

[megalomaniac]

Another thought... disproportionate number of yearlings that were spikes this year compared to years past on my farms, and smaller percentage of racked 1.5y/os.... big healthy 120lb deer, not late born.... plenty of forage last winter and all summer on my places. Dunno if that trend was widespread, but those spikes can easily be shot as 'does', increasing buck harvest.

 

[DeerCamp]

Another thought... disproportionate number of yearlings that were spikes this year compared to years past on my farms, and smaller percentage of racked 1.5y/os.... big healthy 120lb deer, not late born.... plenty of forage last winter and all summer on my places. Dunno if that trend was widespread, but those spikes can easily be shot as 'does', increasing buck harvest.

I've managed to kill 2 mature bucks this year, but have noticed a LOT of younger age class bucks across the properties I hunt this year.

We joke here at home about being "Spike U"

 

[megalomaniac]

I've managed to kill 2 mature bucks this year, but have noticed a LOT of younger age class bucks across the properties I hunt this year.

We joke here at home about being "Spike U"

The number of yearlings is unchanged, but the percentage of yearlings that are spikes is what has dramatically gone up this year

 

[poorhunter]

I'm still shocked by the huge increase in buck kill in western Middle TN. I guess few bucks were killed last year during the bumper acorn crop. And deer are really having to move this year with few acorns, so kill has gone up. But not many killed in my area.

My guess is the corn baiters had a banner year. That and it has been so amazing how many deer are out in pastures and jay fields all throughout the day. No acorns.

 

[AT Hiker]

Amazing how the conversation on this board for 2022 season is how hard the hunting has been. . Yet total kill is sig up.

Weird obersrvations... that are jus that... observations by a single Individual. WAY fewer ML shots heard this season. Average number of rifle shots. Dunno how to interpret this, but the fewer number of ML shots were very noticeable. On a poor acorn year, I would have expected ML kills to be up. Byt rifle more than made up for it

My experience is rather simple. Historically MZL season is the time to be out, this year it was dead. Rifle opened and it was on fire up past Thanksgiving. Every taxidermist I've spoken to in my area said the same thing "mzl was slow and rifle was abnormally busy".
roadkill observations and KY trail cams all show the same.

 

[BSK]

The number of yearlings is unchanged, but the percentage of yearlings that are spikes is what has dramatically gone up this year

High percentage of spike yearlings this year. I'll have to go back through my data and get an average for previous years, but last year only 4 of 23 yearlings were spikes (17.4%). This year, 12 of 27 are spikes (44.4%)

 

[megalomaniac]

My experience is rather simple. Historically MZL season is the time to be out, this year it was dead. Rifle opened and it was on fire up past Thanksgiving. Every taxidermist I've spoken to in my area said the same thing "mzl was slow and rifle was abnormally busy".
roadkill observations and KY trail cams all show the same.

My buddy took his deer he killed last night to his taxidermist, and they flat out couldn't accept him... just too busy this year.