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Deer harvest, especially buck, up in ‘16

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s buck harvest increased 9 percent, and the overall deer harvest was up 6 percent, in the 2016-17 seasons, which closed in January, the Pennsylvania Game Commission reports.

Hunters harvested an estimated 333,254 deer in 2016-17 — an increase of about 6 percent compared to the 2015-16 harvest of 315,813.

Of those, 149,460 were antlered deer, an increase of about 9 percent compared to the previous license year, when an estimated 137,580 bucks were taken. It’s the largest harvest of antlered deer since 2002.

Hunters also harvested an estimated 183,794 antlerless deer in 2016-17, which represents an about 3 percent increase.

Bowhunters accounted for nearly 33 percent of the overall deer harvest, taking 109,250 deer (59,550 bucks and 49,700 does) with archery tackle. Meanwhile, 20,409 deer (1,350 bucks and 19,059 does) were harvested during muzzleloader seasons.

The percentage of older bucks in the harvest remained high, with 56 percent of bucks taken by Pennsylvania hunters during the 2016-17 deer seasons being 2 1/2 years old or older. The previous year, that number was 59 percent.

“This has been quite a year for Pennsylvania deer hunting,” Game Commission executive director R. Matthew Hough said. “Not only was there an increased deer harvest and a significantly higher buck harvest, I saw hundreds of photos from hunters who took their buck-of-a-lifetime this past season. Among them was a hunter whose Clearfield County harvest shattered the state record for nontypical bucks taken with archery tackle.”

Harvest estimates are based on more than 24,000 deer checked by Game Commission personnel and more than 100,000 harvest reports submitted by successful hunters. Because some harvests go unreported, estimates provide a more accurate picture of hunter success.

The antlerless harvest included about 64 percent adult females, about 20 percent button bucks and about 16 percent doe fawns. The rates are similar to long-term averages.

Agency staff is working to develop 2017-18 antlerless deer license allocation recommendations, which will be considered at the March 28 meeting of the Board of Game Commissioners.

Wayne Laroche, Game Commission Bureau of Wildlife Management director, said that in addition to harvest data, staff will be looking at deer health measures, forest regeneration and deer-human conflicts for each Wildlife Management Unit as antlerless allocations are considered for 2017-18.

In the four WMUs that make up the local area, the buck harvest was up slightly in 2016-17 while fewer antlerless deer were taken. Most of the increase was in WMUs 4D and 4E, which include Mifflin, Snyder and Centre counties. In 4D, 700 more buck were harvested than the year before, but 90 fewer antlerless deer. WMU 4E had 1,100 more buck taken, and 600 more antlerless deer.

But WMUs 4B (Juniata and Perry counties) and 4A (Huntingdon County) saw drops off all deer taken. Overall, the harvest reports 53,946 deer (24,800 antlered, 29146 antlerless) taken this year in the four WMUs compared to 54,213 (24,200 antlered, 30,013 antlerless) the previous year.

Season-specific 2016-17 deer harvest estimates (with 2015-16 harvest estimates) are:

¯ WMU 4A: archery, 940 (960) antlered, 1,374 (1,401) antlerless; muzzleloader, 60 (40) antlered, 1,031 (1,285) antlerless.

¯ WMU 4B: archery, 1,850 (1,660) antlered, 1,400 (1,400) antlerless; muzzleloader, 50 (40) antlered, 600 (800) antlerless.

¯ WMU 4D: archery, 2,420 (1,840) antlered, 1,629 (1,714) antlerless; muzzleloader, 80 (60) antlered, 876 (968) antlerless.

¯ WMU 4E: archery, 2,750 (2,150) antlered, 1,570 (1,340) antlerless; muzzleloader, 50 (50) antlered, 730 (760) antlerless.

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