Another record deer harvest expected

With an encouraging opening weekend gun deer harvest, Oklahoma deer hunters may see last year's record surpassed.

In an annual survey conducted after opening weekend of deer gun season, personnel from the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation monitored 30 check stations across the state. Hunters checked in 5,368 deer at those stations, including 3,373 bucks and 1,995 does. That's a 2.44 percent increase over last year's opening weekend of deer gun season.

The sample has proven to be a reliable indicator of statewide harvest success because the same check stations are monitored every year. However, this year the Department was forced to monitor different stations in the northeast region, which may have skewed the numbers for that particular area. The harvest data showed a decline in both bucks and does in the northeast, but is likely not as significant as reported.

"Even with the changes in reporting procedures in the northeast, we're seeing an overal increase in harvest statewide, " said Mike Shaw, research supervisor for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. Excluding the northeast's statistics, the harvest is either up or stable in every other region.

When you add the harvests to date, including the first half of archery season and muzzleloader season, the combined harvest is up 17.3 percent, well on track to break last year's record 82,724 deer.

"Even though the opening weekend's gun deer harvest isn't as high overall as we had anticipated, we are encouraged so far by the amount of antlerless harvest," said Shaw. "We hope that even more deer hunters will continue to see the value in taking a doe instead of a yearling buck."

In the span of a mere generation, the Oklahoma deer management tables have turned. Along with trapping and transplanting whitetail deer beginning in the 1940s, the Department's restoration efforts were supported by a "buck-only" harvest strategy. Later in the 1980s and 90s, the Department liberalized antlerless hunting opportunities in order to maintain healthy buck-to-doe ratios. Today, biologists with the Department are encouraging even greater doe harvest to not only maintain sex ratios, but to curb population growth in areas with too many deer.

"For several years now, we've told hunters that if they were concerned with the future of deer hunting in Oklahoma to pass up young bucks and instead choose to harvest a doe," said Shaw. "And as a result of more liberal doe harvest regulations, we think the message is beginning to sink in." In the northwest part of the state, hunters have the entire nine day gun season to harvest antlerless deer this year.

In central and northeast Oklahoma, hunters are encouraged to take advantage of antlerless deer hunting Nov. 25-26.

South of I-40, hunters are encouraged to take advantage of antlerless deer hunting the last day of the season, Nov. 26.

In Texas and Cimarron counties in the panhandle, hunters were able to take antlerless deer on opening day, Nov. 18.

Deer gun season ends Nov. 28. The rut appears to be in full swing.

With continued forecasts for good weather, hunters should expect to enjoy excellent hunting for the remainder of the season. Check out the Oklahoma Hunting Guide and Regulations for information regarding hunting in specific parts of the state.