Hunters harvested fewer deer during the early hunting season in September and October compared with last year.
However, turkey hunters reported taking 119 wild turkeys (Allegany County 35; Garrett 51; Washington 33) during the one week fall season that ended Nov. 5. The harvest of 116 turkeys was similar to 2015.
Maryland hunters wrapped up the early portion of the archery and muzzleloader deer seasons by harvesting an estimated 19,859 deer, a 14 percent decrease from the 2015 harvest of 23,097.
Department biologists attribute the decrease to lower deer numbers, abundant mast and decreased hunter effort due to poor weather conditions.
The two-month harvest included 12,269 deer taken during the archery season (6,833 taken with vertical bows and 5,436 taken with crossbows) and 7,275 harvested during the October muzzleloader season.
An additional 315 deer were taken during managed deer hunts. Hunters harvested 497 antlered and 534 antlerless Sika deer.
The archery harvest decreased 7 percent while the muzzleloader harvest decreased 25 percent, primarily because of unfavorable weather during key hunting days. Compared to last year, the antlered harvest decreased 17 percent from 7,649 to 6,350 deer and the antlerless harvest decreased 13 percent, from 15,448 to 13,509.