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Record Deer Harvest 2018

News Preliminary deer harvest report shows record year in 2018!

https://www.mass.gov/news/preliminary-deer-harvest-report-shows-record-year-in-2018

Ha - I was just logging in to post this.

Interesting data. Have to dive in a bit - crazy to see 14K killed... Hopefully this winter stay's mellow, the oaks bounce back and we have another super fall in 19.

6000 in zones 10-11

Yeah maybe this mild winter will also bring a big turkey harvest!

strange season our here in Berkshires...... saw more deer in zone 2 and less in zone 3.. usually other way around.. I saw very few does in either though...

6000 in Z10-11 Moons must account for 90% of that.

It was a very unusual year here as well . We all saw a lot of bucks while hunting. cameras were loaded with pics of does with 2&3 fawns at nite. Usually the opposite. I guest as warm, wet and windy as it was it helped make for good hunting conditions. The Catopillars were not nearly as bad as the past 2 years with mild winters as well. Curious to see if next year there will be as many nice bucks taken as this year? I thought this year was a boom year for big bucks. U?

Deer dawg, agreed. It felt like I saw more big bucks killed or on others cams than I've ever seen last year... while I saw fewer than I've seen in years and only had 1 on cam. Conversely I saw more deer while hunting than I have in decades, though most were 1.5YO bucks or does/fawns. Hopefully that pan's out to help with next year's numbers, especially with the, so far, mild winter.

The jump clearly comes from the 2 weeks extra in 10/11 and from the added Wachusett total, at least in large part. So it doesnt really relate to previous years.

Anyone dive in yet to see how say Z1-8 looked compared to previous years?

Zone 7 used to have 800 kills then went to 600 now 700. I’m curious if it’s because more deer or hunters?

Good points Will, the 2 week xtra did not help within our party of about 8 guys no one connected but overall I believe it had to help raise overall numbers of deer taken. How many taken in this Wachusett Hunt? I would think that the overall hunter numbers are down? Did they issuing more tags in some zones than years prior? I guess that would equate to more deer with less overall hunters? I did see way more hunters in gun season than I usually do.

Acorns

I like your answers jed . too the point

What did zone 6 and 12 do

GED I've often said that years without acorns are more productive because deer move more to static food sources. years with acorns, they can eat just about anywhere. thanks for posting the CT graph.

Graph makes sense, this past year I moved stands to areas that were producing acorns and did have more success. Find those oak groves that are producing acorns!

Agreed Hickstick... Much easier to narrow down where they are feeding (if you can find the feed) when no acorns. I know most people usually only see people showing off their big deer, but I feel like there were more mature quality bucks taken in zones 1, 2, & 3 this year than any year I can remember... and definitely more big bucks than normal.

I know it has to do with the mild winter(s) we have had and the abundance of food the year prior. I think since there were so few acorns the mountain deer out here moved and fed down lower in the green fields, etc. a lot more than usual. The bucks had to come off of their secluded ridges to find the does and food and I truly think that is one of the main reasons so many people were successful on nice bucks this year and had so many on camera.

Hick, I feel the opposite as this is the first year with no acorns in my spot so even though the deer may have had to move more they were tough to pattern. Also if they had to eat around houses then that would take place at night.

Ungie, that's a really interesting observation. It sure seemed like a LOT of beasts fell last fall. Though that appears a growing MA trend the past 5-6 years overall.

Overall though, I've always done best in years with lots of acorns - I'm an outlier. Then again, this year I saw a lot of deer, so... there goes my acorns are good to me "theory" :)

Agreed with Ungie the mild witers over the last few more food and more fawns live! The numbers I have seen over the last 10 yrs or so have risen 2 fold.More deer >more deer getting older.Strong deer seldom get taken down by yotes seldom. my 2cents

Ungie, I think your theory applies very well out here for me anyway. I had one stand that I set up In the third week of season on a white oak grove that was tore up. It was like a magnet/ vacume. In my first 5 sits deer every time, many different bucks. Even after we shot 4 deer in that stand we continued to see different bucks. It was like all the deer in a 5 mile radius were on this spot. I have multiple other stand within a few miles and they were dead cold. This year I learned a valuable lesson on early season scouting, find the hot oak grove when not many acorns and you will see deer.

Acorns are the key mild Winters and I think alot of us are passing the small young bucks Mass have some big boys out there now if we could just all pass on the young ones stop the doe permits and in a few years we will have plenty of boomers I've seen more deer in the past 2 years lots of does with 2 and 3 fawns so something's working

This was the first year we really tried to pass on does and small bucks, we usually see a fair amount of deer every year. I don't pass to often. I do not specifically hunt for big bucks. All we shot were bucks. We had 8 doe tags between us and did not fill them. Really odd year. Every year is so different and every year you got to figure it out all over again! That's what makes it so much fun.

I'm with you DeerDawg. I generally don't pass on much in MA, but this year I did pass on a couple small bucks. I only saw a couple of does. No doe tag where I was, but I wouldn't kill one there regardless. I had very few does on cam this year as well. Mostly bucks. Strange.

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