Hunters in New York State enjoyed another successful year, harvesting an estimated 203,427 deer during the 2017-18 hunting seasons.
The 2017 estimated deer take included 95,623 antlerless deer and 107,804 antlered bucks, an estimated five percent fewer deer than the previous year. Statewide, this represents a 10 percent decline in antlerless harvest and a buck harvest nearly identical to 2016.
Hunters in the Northern Zone took 25,351 deer, including 18,074 adult bucks. In the Southern Zone, hunters took 178,076 deer, including 89,730 adult bucks.
The decline in antlerless harvest occurred despite issuing more antlerless permits last season. Wildlife biologists have noted two important and encouraging items that emerged from the 2017 deer harvest. First, with 53.3 percent of the adult buck harvest averaging 2.5 years or older, hunters took an estimated 57,494 older bucks, setting a record in total number and greatest percentage of older bucks in the harvest.
Second, the portion of successful hunters who reported their harvest as required by state law increased from 44 percent in recent years to 50 percent in 2017.
Along with the Take It · Tag It · Report It campaign, the process of harvest reporting is now substantially easier for hunters, providing phone, internet, and mobile app options. Harvest reports are critically important for accurate monitoring of deer harvests, and hunters are encouraged to contribute to the management process by complying with the reporting requirements.
DEC's 2017 Deer Harvest Summary report (PDF, 6.31 MB) provides a suite of tables, charts, and maps detailing the deer harvest around the state. Past deer harvest summaries are available online.
Of 2,402 deer tested for Chronic Wasting Disease in 2017-18, none tested positive. The Department has tested more than 50,000 deer for CWD since 2002.
Deer harvest data are gathered from two main sources: harvest reports required of all successful hunters and DEC's examination of more than 14,000 harvested deer at check stations and meat processors.
Statewide harvest estimates are made by cross-referencing these two data sources and calculating the total harvest from the reporting rate for each zone and tag type. A full report of the 2017-18 deer harvest, as well as past deer and bear harvest summaries, is available at Deer and Bear Harvests.