Another look at the 2015-16 deer harvest

There are a lot of good reasons to go to deer camp. Getting to shoot a doe with a bow is apparently not one of them.

That’s what the numbers suggest anyway.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission earlier this week released its deer harvest estimates for the 2015-16 seasons. They say hunters killed 315,813 deer last season. That’s an increase of about 4 percent over the year before, when the estimate was 303,973.

Breaking those numbers down is revealing.

One thing that stands out is what hunters are shooting and where.

The “big woods” areas – wildlife management units 2F, 2G, 2H and 3A – that are home to so many hunting camps and so much public land in such big chunks account for a fair number of deer killed. They gave up 18,800 bucks, for example. That’s 14 percent of the total buck kill.

But only 4,670 of those – 9 percent of the total – were taken in archery season.

The disparity between the doe kill and the archery doe kill in those units is equally noticeable.

Hunters in those same four units took 14,900 antlerless deer, or 8 percent of the overall doe harvest.

Breaking that down by season, though, shows hunters there took only 2,590 does in the archery season. That’s 5 percent of the archery doe kill.

So, then, where are archers hunting?

Around the state’s population centers, that’s where. The buck kill shows that most clearly.

The top four units for archery buck harvest are, in order, 5C, 2D, 5B and 2B. Units 5C and 5B are just east of Philadelphia; unit 2B surrounds Pittsburgh, while 2D is just to the north, taking in all of Armstrong County and parts of several nearby counties.

Together, they accounted for 35 percent of the archery buck kill, or 17,840 animals..

By comparison, they produced 32,900 bucks across all seasons. That’s 24 percent of the total.

The top four archery doe units last season were 2B, 5C, 5B and 5D. That only makes sense. Excepting 5B, they have the longest doe seasons and more licenses available, per capita, than anywhere else.

Hunters in those units took 45,300 does overall, or 25 percent of the total. Of those, 21,420 were taken in archery season; that’s 45 percent of the total.

The trend is similar, though less pronounced, when it comes to muzzleloader harvests.

Anyway, here’s a look at how the units rank in various categories. Listed is the unit and the deer killed there in 2015-16.

Overall buck harvest

1. 2D: 12,300
2. 2C: 9,100
3. 5B: 8,000
4. 3C: 7,600
5. 5C: 7,400
6. 4D: 7,200
7. 2F: 7,000
8. 1B: 6,900
9. 3B: 6,800
10. 2A: 6,500
11. 4E: 6,200
12. 2G: 6,100
13. 1A: 6,000
14. 4B: 5,700
15. 4C: 5,400
16. 2B: 5,200
17. 4A: 5,100
18. 2E: 4,700
19. 3A: 4,300
20. 3D: 3,500
21. 5A: 2,900
22. 5D: 2,200
23. 2H: 1,400

Overall antlerless harvest

1. 2D: 15,700
2. 2B: 15,000
3. 5C: 13,600
4. 5B: 11,500
5. 2A: 10,500
6. 3C: 10,500
7. 1A: 9,100
8. 4A, 8,670
9. 2C: 8,490
10. 1B: 7,700
11. 4D: 7,443
12. 3B: 7,400
13. 4B: 7,000
14. 4E: 6,900
15. 2F: 5,400
16. 2E: 5,300
17. 5D: 5,200
18. 4C: 5,000
19. 5A: 4,600
20. 2G: 4,100
21. 3A: 4,000
22. 3D: 3,700
23. 2H: 1,400

Archery buck harvest

1. 5C: 4,880
2. 2D: 4,780
3. 5B: 4,430
4. 2B: 3,750
5. 2C: 3,130
6. 1A: 2,610
7. 1B: 2,560
8. 3B: 2,320
9. 2A: 2,160
10. 4C: 2,150
11. 4E: 2,150
12. 3C: 2,060
13. 2F: 1,860
14. 4D: 1,840
15. 5D: 1,770
16. 4B: 1,660
17. 2E: 1,460
18. 2G: 1,340
19. 3A: 1,180
20. 3D: 1,060
21. 4A: 960
22. 5A: 880
23. 2H: 290

Archery doe harvest

1. 2B: 7,880
2. 5C: 6,310
3. 5B: 3,790
4. 5D: 3,440
5. 1A: 2,480
6. 2D: 2,330
7. 2A: 2,110
8. 3C: 1,940
9. 4D: 1,714
10. 2C: 1,687
11. 3B: 1,620
12. 1B: 1,480
13. 4A: 1,401
14. 4B: 1,400
15. 4C: 1,380
16. 4E: 1,340
17. 5A: 1,010
18. 3D: 980
19. 2E: 800
20. 2G: 800
21. 2F: 780
22. 3A: 760
23. 2H: 250

Muzzleloader buck harvest

1. 2D: 120
2. 5C: 120
3. 1A: 90
4. 3B: 80
5. 2C: 70
6. 5B: 70
7. 2G: 60
8. 4D: 60
9. 2B: 50
10. 4C: 50
11. 4E: 50
12. 1B: 40
13. 2A: 40
14. 2E: 40
15. 2F: 40
16. 3C: 40
17. 3D: 40
18. 4A: 40
19. 4B: 40
20. 5D: 30
21. 3A: 20
22. 5A: 20
23. 2H: 10

Muzzleloader doe harvest

1. 2D: 1,970
2. 3C: 1,460
3. 2A: 1,390
4. 4A: 1,285
5. 3B: 1,180
6. 1A: 1,120
7. 5C: 1,090
8. 2C: 1,066
9. 5B: 1,010
10. 4D: 968
11. 2B: 920
12. 4B: 800
13. 4E: 760
14. 1B: 720
15. 2F: 720
16. 2E: 700
17. 2G: 700
18. 3A: 640
19. 4C: 620
20. 5A: 590
21. 3D: 520
22. 2H: 250
23. 5D: 160