Hunters in Pennsylvania harvested an estimated 422,960 white-tailed deer throughout the state in the 2022-23 season, up approximately 12% over the 2021-22 season.
According to estimates by the Pennsylvania Game Commission, the statewide buck harvest was 164,190 and the antlerless harvest was at 258,770.
All told, that’s an increase over 2021-22’s total of 376,810 deer taken. Longer-term, the PGC said this week, the numbers are “very much in line with recent trends, with the buck harvest in particular only 2% higher than the most-recent three-year average.”
David Stainbrook, the Game Commission’s deer and elk section supervisor, said that’s noteworthy because the buck harvest is considered a good indicator of the overall deer population trend. If the buck harvest is climbing, the deer population likely is, too.
If it’s dropping, the population probably mirrors that. If it’s stable, the population likely is as well, though, if hunter numbers are declining, a stable antlered harvest trend may actually indicate an increasing population trend.
“The long-term buck harvest trend indicates Pennsylvania’s deer population is in a pretty good place right now,” Stainbrook said. “We see generally stable population trends in most of the state, near goal levels, and we are seeing more older bucks available for harvest.
“For five years running,” he added, “about one of every four Pennsylvania hunters has tagged a buck, with two of every three bucks harvested being 2.5 years old or older.”
When it comes to antlerless deer, 67% of those harvested were adult females, while 17% were button bucks and 16% were doe fawns, according to PGC estimates. Hunters filled roughly one of every four antlerless deer licenses last season.
All of those figures are in line with the long-term averages, the PGC said.
Game Commission Executive Director Bryan Burhans said the harvest numbers reflect well not only the agency’s deer management program, but on the opportunities the state’s deer hunters have now and figure to have going into the future.
“We’ve been saying for a while now that this is a great time to be a Pennsylvania deer hunter,” Burhans said. “These harvest figures are the proof of that.”
Numbers for Wildlife Management Units show variations in terms of increases or decreases of deer killed in north central Pennsylvania.
In WMU 2F (this includes the portions of McKean and Elk counties west of U.S. Route 219, along with most of Warren County, all of Forest County and into Venango and Clarion counties) the estimated harvest in 2022-23 was 8,800 antlered deer and 11,800 antlerless deer. Estimated totals in the 2021-22 season were 8,900 and 10,200, respectively.
In WMU 3A (this includes McKean County east of 219 and south to U.S. Route 6, with Route 6 serving as the southern boundary all the way east into a corner of Bradford County) there were an estimated 5,700 bucks taken, up from 5,400 in 2021-22, and 5,600 antlerless deer taken, up from 5,400.
In WMU 2H (this includes roughly the southeast quarter of McKean County, most of the eastern half of Elk County, the upper third of Cameron County, a small northwest portion of Clearfield County and an even smaller corner of northeast Jefferson County) an estimated 2,200 bucks were taken, down from 2,500 the year before, and 1,800 antlerless deer taken, down from 1,900.
In WMU 2G (this includes roughly the southern half of Potter County, two-thirds of Cameron County to the east and south, much of Tioga County south of Route 6, much of the western part of Lycoming County, much of northern Clearfield and Clinton counties and a small southeast corner of Elk County) 6,400 bucks were reported taken, down from 6,200 the year before, and 5,100 antlerless deer were taken, up from 4,800 in 2021-22.
The top deer producing WMU in terms of deer hunting was 2D, which includes portions of Venango, Jefferson and Clearfield counties in its north; all of Armstrong County; and portions of Indiana, Butler and Westmoreland counties. Hunters in that WMU took an estimated 14,000 antlered deer and 23,000 antlerless (11,500 bucks and 19,900 atlerless in 2021-22).
The Game Commission reported that, as in years past, the regular firearms deer season accounted for the largest part of the 2022-23 deer harvest. Statewide, firearms hunters took 251,520 deer, with 87,190 of those bucks and the remaining 164,340 being antlerless.
Bowhunters accounted for a little over a third of the total deer harvest, taking 145,640 whitetails (75,770 bucks and 69,870 antlerless deer) with either bows or crossbows. The estimated muzzleloader harvest was 25,790 (1,230 bucks, 24,560 antlerless deer).
