Crossbows Harvest 3,114 Deer In 2017
Connecticut
Contributors to this thread:
The CT DEEP has released additional totals for the 2017 hunting season, including the January harvest.
Deer - 11,818
Turkey - 1,761
DVAs - 733
January - 284
Crop Damage - 560
Total number of licensed deer hunters for 2017 (26,690) and total number of archery harvested deer with crossbows (2,935) during the regular season + (179) with crossbows in January.
Wow I never thought CT had that few hunters. The success rate is roughly 48%. That’s damn good although I’m sure a bunch are more then 1 tag filled.
In 2016 the CT DEEP deer summary listed 47,958 permits to licensed deer hunters. It is possible that they are adding additional implement types of hunting licenses (archery, muzzle loader, rifle/shotgun, land owner, crop damage, etc.) per individual CT hunting licence holder; or the figure is a mistake. I will contact the DEEP again and verify the figure 26,690 licensed deer hunters for 2017. The harvest success rate for deer in CT has been running approximately 20-25% for the last few years.
Deer program summaries report number of deer permits issued. Which is different than licensed deer hunters.
10:07. I am trying to get to the bottom of this, but can’t find these data online. Glen, can you provide a link for us to see these numbers? If not, I am guessing that DEEP “released” them to you via FOIA as January 31st was only last week. In 2016, DEEP issued 47,958 deer hunting permits to licensed deer hunters, many of whom get more than 1 permit. That is why that discrepancy exists. So Spike is right, that that is how many licensed deer hunters there are in CT, but I presume DEEP figures hunter success by tag type and not by the individual hunter.
Doc - The DEEP numbers were obtained through FOIA.......My guess would also be that DEEP is using total permit or tag issued numbers to determine hunter success rate; I will check with DEEP to make sure.
Any idea how many of those cross bow shots were 90 yards?
Permit totals for 2017 hunting season. The CT DEEP is using total permits to determine hunter success rate.
Interesting data. Of note to me archery has stayed the same but gun hunting permits are dramatically dropping. Is it because of latest round of conn gun laws? Surely not people getting older going to a bow instead of gun. Usually the other way. Maybe older people stopping hunting but younger hunters taking up bow only? I would think deep would be seriously concerned about dropping hunting numbers. If my industry was dropping by 8 percent per year I would be very seriously concerned and be taking every action possible to address it.
I think the archery season offers more opportunities with the longer season and it's more acceptable to private landowners in areas where guns wouldn't work on small parcel, like FF county. Guns sales have gone up dramatically in the last few years, mostly for protection, not hunting, so I don't see it as people being afraid of guns.
Two reasons gun permits are going down and will continue to decline.
Land is going bye bye. And new private owners don’t want gun hunters like they did in the past.
Recruitment of younger hunters aren’t using guns....but archery is still “acceptable”. And it’s immediate gratification for new crossbow users, so that will keep increasing.
Crossbow use isn’t all younger hunters...
not mention on Gun hunters...the seasons are short....a season shotgun you get 9 days...while if your dug into a good archery spots why leave it to go to shotgun
the state land for shotgun is overcrowded
it is much easier to get permission to archery hunt than gun hunt...