Deer numbers continue to rise

The numbers are in from last year and it was an extremely good year for Oklahoma deer hunters. In fact hunters took 134,158 deer last year, an all-time record!

“Oklahoma’s deer populations enjoyed growing numbers and good habitat conditions across much of the state last year, factors contributing to the record harvest,” said Dallas Barber, big game biologist for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. “But also contributing was the willingness of Oklahoma hunters to help the state’s deer management plan by taking more antlerless deer.”

Antlerless harvest made up 45 percent of the total harvest, falling right in line with the statewide management goals that are resulting in healthier populations overall.

Biologists have been encouraging hunters to take more does. This is vital to the health of Oklahoma’s deer herd, and it sure seems that hunters are listening.

Gun season continued as the most popular deer hunting season. Gun hunters took 80,956 deer with a modern firearm, the largest amount ever. This figure includes the holiday antlerless season and the youth season.

Muzzleloader harvest decreased slightly from the previous year, with 11,715 deer taken during the nine-day season.

For the fourth year in a row, archery hunters set a record with 41,478 deer taken.

When it comes to location of harvest the top three counties for deer harvest came in as expected due to their large size. Osage County landed in first place with 5,409 deer harvested. Pittsburg County was closely behind with 4,662 and Atoka County landed in third place with 3,390 deer taken, but McCurtain and Creek counties are not far behind.

Archery hunting continues to grow in popularity, which can be seen in a record-setting harvest for a third year in a row. Archers took 36,522 deer during the 2021-22 season, accounting for just over 30 percent of the total deer harvest. Antlerless deer made up 44 percent of the archery total. The annual Game Harvest Survey (GHS), a scientific survey conducted by the Wildlife Department, has been tracking hunter metrics for decades. The GHS estimated that 117,216 archers took to the field this past season with a deer license in hand.

During the nine-day muzzleloader season, 12,228 deer were taken. That was a substantial drop from the previous year, a drop that could be attributed to warm temperatures across much of the state. The GHS estimated 85,248 hunters went afield to harvest 4,546 antlerless deer and 7,682 antlered deer.