It’s estimated that hunters took 223,304 deer in New York State this past season. That number is up from 209,781 the previous season and is slightly below the five year average.

There were an estimated 122,427 antlered deer and 100,877 antlerless deer taken. An estimated 66.9 percent of the bucks were 2.5 years old or older, up from 52 percent ten years ago and 30 percent in the 1990s. That indicates that the antler restrictions and New York’s voluntary “Let them go and watch them grow” program are both having an effect on the population.

This past deer season, 53.6 percent of successful hunters reported their harvest, as required by law, up from the five-year average of 48.2 percent. I must admit that I remain baffled by that lack of compliance every time that I read it. That number should be 100 percent or something darn close to it. Shame on hunters that don’t report harvests.

DEC staff checked 13,488 deer (roughly 6 percent of the total take) and gathered biological data from them. Actual field studies like that are used to help determine future seasons. There were an estimated 18,372 deer taken with a crossbow last season. That number is less than half the number taken with a vertical bow.

The full 2024-25 Deer Harvest Summary report is available on the DEC website and contains a tremendous amount of information. It’s always nice to see that they break out everything both by county and by Wildlife Management Unit (WMU).

As part of the press release for the harvest report, the DEC also provided an update on Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in New York. As we all know, there was a case last Fall up in Herkimer County at a red stag farm. Since then, the DEC has tested more than 200 wild deer in six towns in the surrounding area of the incident. None of the wild deer tested positive and the DEC is hopeful that CWD was not transferred to the local deer population.

DEC collected and tested 3,189 samples from deer statewide in 2024 in their ongoing efforts to monitor and prevent the spread of CWD. The last known case of CWD detected in a wild deer in New York was from the original incident in 2005 which also involved a deer farm. That potential outbreak was quickly isolated and prevented.

Let’s all enjoy the outdoors!

John S. Van Etten is the current president of the Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs of Sullivan County, Inc.