Hunting News

NY 2014-15 deer harvest similar to last year

NY 2014-15 deer harvest similar to last year

By New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation

Hunters harvested approximately 238,670 deer during New York’s 2014-15 hunting seasons, slightly less than the statewide take the previous year.

The estimated total includes 130,068 antlerless deer and 108,604 adult bucks 1.5 years or older.  Statewide, the number represents a stable antlerless harvest up by 1 percent and a decrease in buck harvest, down 5 percent from 2013 and 2 percent from the recent 5-year average.

Hunters in the Northern Zone took 29,075 deer, including 16,727 adult bucks.  In the Southern Zone, hunters took 206,106 deer, including about 90,702 adult bucks.   The estimated harvest on Long Island (Suffolk County) was 3,491 deer, including 1,175 adult bucks.

In 2014, only 52 percent of the bucks taken in areas without antler restrictions (48 percent statewide) were 1.5 years old, compared to 67 percent in 2000 and 72 percent in the early 1990s.  Even though the statewide buck harvest dropped slightly from the past few years, hunters in 2014 took an estimated 56,247 bucks aged 2.5 years or older, more than ever before.

An estimated 5,535 deer were taken by hunters using crossbows. A new law in 2014 allowed hunters, 14 years and older, to use crossbows during a portion of the early bowhunting seasons and throughout the regular firearms season and muzzleloader seasons.  During 2011 and 2012, crossbows were lawful only during regular firearms season and late muzzleloader season; the average harvest by crossbows averaged only 465 deer those years.

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