Nearly 210,000 deer harvested in New York State during the 2023-2024 hunting seasons, DEC says

Nearly 210,000 deer were harvested during the 2023-2024 hunting seasons across New York State, according to the DEC.

This includes over 112,000 antlered bucks and over 97,000 antlerless deer. “Nearly 70 percent of the bucks harvested by hunters during the 2023-24 deer hunting seasons were two years or older,” Interim Commissioner Mahar said, touting the continued effectiveness of the DEC’s ‘Let Young Bucks Go and Watch Them Grow’ campaign.

Statewide, the statistics for last hunting season represents a 3.6 percent decrease in antlered buck harvest and a 15.6 percent decrease in antlerless deer harvest from last season, the DEC says.

According to officials, the decrease in antlerless deer harvest, which is approximately 15 percent lower than the five-year average, is concerning because DEC manages deer populations through actions that encourage harvest of antlerless deer.

Harvesting antlerless deer helps ensure deer populations remain in balance with available habitat and do not exceed levels of public acceptance that can lead to increased crop damage, deer-vehicle collisions, and other potentially negative deer-related impacts, the DEC emphasized.

Notable Numbers:

• 15.8 and 0.6 – number of deer taken per square mile in the units with the highest (WMU 8R) and lowest (WMU 5F) harvest density.
• 67.9 percent – portion of the adult buck harvest that was two-and-a-half years or older statewide, up from 45 percent a decade ago, and 30 percent in the 1990s.
• 49.9 percent – portion of successful deer hunters that reported their harvest as required by law. This is slightly above the five-year average of 48.6 percent.
• Approximately 1.7 percent – the precision of DEC’s 2023-24 statewide deer harvest estimate.
• 13,638 – number of hunter-harvested deer checked by DEC staff in 2023 to determine hunter reporting rate and collect biological data (e.g., age, sex, antler data).
• 2,713 – deer tested for CWD in 2023-24; none tested positive. DEC has tested more than 65,000 deer for CWD since 2002.

NYS DEC image.