The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has announced that approximately 227,032 deer were harvested during the 2025-26 season. That is up 2 percent from the previous year and just slightly under the five-year average.

One of the most interesting things to come out of the report is that the number of mature bucks taken exceeded the number of yearling bucks for the first time in modern history. Twenty-five years ago, two thirds of the bucks taken were yearlings. Antler restrictions and the DEC’s voluntary “Let Young Bucks Go and Watch Them Grow” campaign are both working.

Approximately 120,909 bucks and 106,123 antlerless deer were harvested according to the report. The antlerless take was up 5 percent from 2024 which is encouraging because one of the goals the DEC has is to increase the doe harvest to better control the population. The DEC is working on some proposed changes in the regulations in order to further increase the number of does taken.

This past season was the first since new legislation expanded the use of crossbows to include all times and places where vertical bows are used. I know as a Hunter Safety Instructor that many hunters embraced the use of crossbows (they came to our bow courses to get properly certified).

The numbers are surprising even to me. The DEC Deer Harvest Report shows that 55 percent of the total archery take was with crossbows and only 45 percent with vertical bows. The numbers show an increase in the age of archers that used a crossbow versus a vertical bow (presumed to be related to difficulties for older hunters in drawing the latter) as well as twice as many women using crossbows.

There were other interesting numbers in the Deer Harvest Report. There were 530,808 licensed big game hunters during the 2025-26 Season. Of the estimated 227,032 deer taken, 2,567 were harvested by young folks aged 12-15 during the Youth Firearms Season. Congratulations to all of our young hunters!

The DEC estimates that 11 percent of hunters used the new e-tag system for all of their deer hunting while 19 percent used a combination of e-tags and paper tags. I’m slightly surprised by how low those figures are, but I suspect it reflects the aging hunter population. Older folks tend to be more resistant to new technology until it is proven.

The Deer Harvest Report states that only 63 percent of hunters report their success as required by law. That is up from a five-year average of slightly less than half, but still way too low. Please report your harvest! Without enough data, biologists have a much harder time establishing proper seasons and quotas.

The Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) with the greatest density of deer taken per square mile was 8R at 17.1 and the lowest density was 0.7 in WMU 5F. The density map for the entire state is in the report.

Wildlife staff from the DEC examined 12,385 deer at various checkpoints, processing locations, taxidermists, etc, to determine age, sex and other information about the overall health of the herd. They tested 3,050 deer for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) and found no cases.

The full report is on the DEC website and I encourage everyone that is interested to take a look at it. There is a lot of good information in it.

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.