Figuring the deer figures
I was looking over the harvest figures for the 2002 deer seasons. It was not the least bit surprising to see the grand total.
The introduction of the new muzzleloader antlerless deer season seemed to have some effect in this area, especially after a rather poor showing in its first season.
This year, not only did the weather cooperate, but also there seemed to be more hunters afield after the legalization of percussion and in-line muzzleloaders for the antlerless deer hunt.
The Fayette County harvest jumped from 398 to 535, while Greene County’s kill jumped from 767 to 811.
The biggest increase percentage-wise was in Westmoreland, where the harvest jumped from 512 in 2001 to 920 in 2002. Somerset County had a modest increase from 512 to 659, while Washington County saw the only decrease from last year with a drop of over 10 percent as the harvest fell from 1,145 to 1,003.
Flintlock figures for antlered deer dropped across the board, but I would blame that on two factors – an abundance of antlerless deer licenses in Fayette and surrounding counties, and an early onset of winter, which was brutally cold, causing antlers to drop early.
Everyone had so many opportunities to shoot antlerless deer that many took their deer during the regular deer season, plus anyone who killed a buck during the regular season or in the archery season could only stand by while his smokepole stood in the corner, unless he had an antlerless deer license.
The buck harvest really bottomed out with Washington County falling from 86 to 28, Greene from 71 to 21 and Somerset from 66 to 27. Only Fayette and Westmoreland counties’ harvest figures were static as Fayette only dropped from 47 to 43 and Westmoreland from 66 to 52.
Fayette County bow-hunters bucked a trend by killing more bucks than they did in 2001 (548-500).
The archery buck harvest in Washington (1,195-868) and Westmoreland (1,849-1,231) counties dropped, but they were under four-point antler restrictions. Greene (438-404) and Somerset counties (757 -751) also dropped, but ever so slightly.
Fayette also had a substantial increase in antlerless archery kills (313 to 383), Somerset increased (442 to 541), Greene fell (542 to 514), Washington dropped (1,148 to 1,049) and Westmoreland’s doe kill was up from 1,014 to 1,103.
Throughout the area, regular season buck harvests followed the downward, statewide trend intended by the Game Commission with the exception of Fayette County, where the harvest only dropped by 14 deer to 2,920.
The four-point antler restriction seems to have had a huge impact on the Washington County buck harvest as it dropped by over 40 percent from 6,225 to 3,743.
Buck and doe harvest figures seem to be on a seesaw, but eventually we will see the fruits of Dr. Gary Alt’s work with more and better quality bucks in Pennsylvania.
Rod Schoener is the Herald-Standard outdoors writer.