Apr 8, 2023 3 min read

HARRISBURG – The Pennsylvania Game Commission reported results from the 2022-23 deer seasons Friday.

The seasons ended in January.

Hunters harvested an estimated 422,960 white-tailed deer. The statewide buck harvest was estimated at 164,190 and the antlerless harvest at 258,770.

All told, that’s a 12 percent increase over 2021-22’s estimated take, which was 376,810. Longer-term, though, it’s very much in line with recent trends, with the buck harvest in particular, only 2 percent higher than the most-recent three-year average.

Game Commission Deer and Elk Section Supervisor David Stainbrook said that’s noteworthy because the buck harvest is considered a good indicator of the overall deer population trend.

If the buck harvest is climbing, the deer population likely is, too. If it’s dropping, the population probably mirrors that. If it’s stable, the population likely is as well, though, if hunter numbers are declining, a stable antlered harvest trend may actually indicate an increasing population trend.

“The long-term buck harvest trend indicates Pennsylvania’s deer population is in a pretty good place right now,” Stainbrook said. “We see generally stable population trends in most of the state, near goal levels, and we are seeing more older bucks available for harvest.

“For five years running, about one of every four Pennsylvania hunters has tagged a buck, with two of every three bucks harvested being 2.5 years old or older.”

When it comes to antlerless deer, 67 percent of those harvested were adult females, while 17 percent were button bucks and 16 percent were doe fawns. Hunters filled roughly one of every four antlerless deer licenses last season.

All of those figures are in line with the long-term averages.

Game Commission Executive Director Bryan Burhans said the harvest numbers reflect well not only the agency’s deer management program, but on the opportunities the state’s deer hunters have now, and figure to have going into the future.

“We’ve been saying for a while now that this is a great time to be a Pennsylvania deer hunter,” Burhans said. “These harvest figures are the proof of that.”

As in years past, the regular firearms deer season accounted for the largest part of the 2022-23 deer harvest. Firearms hunters took 251,520 deer, with 87,190 of those bucks and the remaining 164,340 being antlerless.

Bowhunters accounted for a little over a third of the total deer harvest, taking 145,640 whitetails (75,770 bucks and 69,870 antlerless deer) with either bows or crossbows. The estimated muzzleloader harvest was 25,790 (1,230 bucks, 24,560 antlerless deer).