By the time this issue of Tennessee Sportsman reaches your mail box or hits the newsstands the archery season opener will be just days away. Final preparations are under way as deer hunters narrow their search for the “honey holes” that will hopefully put venison in the freezer and racks on the wall.

One of the biggest departures from the norm in Tennessee deer season regulations was the removal of the random drawing for county quota hunts. They were sold this year on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Even though the statewide deer harvest was predicted to climb in 2009, numbers didn’t quite hit the marks predicted by Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency wildlife managers. Statewide harvest dropped 1.3 percent to 162,202. This is just slightly better than the 2003 deer harvest of 161,780, but last year’s kill was accomplished with nearly 10 percent fewer hunters. It is estimated that 195,000 deer hunters went afield last season, compared to 214,000 in 2003. The most recent peak in estimated deer hunter participation was in 1999, when 242,000 hunters pursued whitetails.

Deer hunter success rates started inching back up last season. Approximately 45 percent of hunters were successful, up slightly from 44 percent in 2007 and 2008. Volunteer State deer hunter success rate peaked at 47 percent in 2006, the year prior to the die-off caused by the disease EHD.

In last year’s Deer Outlook, Daryl Ratajczak, Tennessee’s big-game coordinator, qualified his predictions for 2009 because of the regulation change that allowed hunters to check their kills online versus taking them to a check-in station. ”

About 10 percent of the people used internet check-in,” Ratajczak said. “I think that number will grow as more hunters become familiar with its use.”

This season the TWRA is going back to checking deer during the calendar day they are killed to help enforce the deer bag limit.

“We have no evidence and no way to prove that compliance changed,” Ratajczak said, “but our law enforcement officers feel that it would help them do a better job.”

“My overall predictions,” Ratajczak mused, “well, I would be thrilled if we stayed the course. Statewide, we dropped in the number of yearlings killed last season. Tennessee is a Quality Deer Management state voluntarily. If we just maintained what we have been harvesting, well, I would be thrilled.

“For the last three years we have harvested in the 160,000-plus range,” he resumed, “and we will probably hit the mid 160s again, or we may approach 170,000. Overall, our herd is in really good shape.”

The biggest change in deer regulations for 2010 is with the traditional either-sex quota hunt drawings.

“We recommended doing away with the quota drawing permits in units A and B,” Ratajczak said. “All of those counties will have open doe days.”

In Unit B counties the number of counties that allow the harvest of does during the muzzleloader season will increase to a total of 14.

Despite the EHD-related die offs statewide three years ago, Giles County has been seemingly unaffected and its deer harvest numbers have steadily climbed. Deer harvest has grown so steadily that the Middle Tennessee county rose from its fourth place spot to the reigning champion statewide for the most deer killed last season. It is speculated that Giles County would have topped the list earlier if its deer population hadn’t been hammered by the EHD outbreak in 2007. Giles County has been a top producer for many years, with 1988 being the first season that this county topped the 5,000 mark for deer killed.

Slipping from its top spot in 2009, Hardeman County recorded 5,063 deer harvested, which was down from 5,758 the year previous. Fayette County dropped from the No. 2 spot in 2008 to No. 4 last season, with a total deer harvest of 4,847.

Although Henry County’s harvest dropped from 5,122 to 5,022 last season, it wasn’t enough to unseat it from its third place ranking. The number of antlered bucks taken in Henry County rose last season to 2,240, up from 2,063 in 2008.

The top 5 was again rounded out by Lincoln County, where deer hunters bagged a total of 4,342 whitetails. The number of antlered bucks was amazingly stable, with just two more bucks checked in last season than the previous, posting a total of 2,103.

Franklin County again made the No. 6 spot with a harvest of 3,723, down slightly from the 2008 total. Maury County crept back into the top 10 list after recovering from the EHD episode. The southern Middle Tennessee county rose to No. 7 with 3,505 deer taken.

Montgomery County rose in the standings last season by giving up 3,441 deer to hunters, and rising from the No. 10 spot to its present No. 8 position. Madison County held its ninth place ranking by harvesting 3,319 deer, which was down slightly from 3,536 taken during the 2008 season. Weakley County rounded out the top 10 by recording 3,267 deer harvested, which was down by more than 500 deer from the year before.

Carroll, Wayne, McNairy, Hickman and Lawrence counties, respectively, were in the top 15 counties in the statewide harvest. Of special note, Hickman County reigned as the top producer for more than a decade until it was unseated by Giles County way back in 1988. Hickman County jockeyed back and forth with Giles County for another decade, coming out on top in 1989, 1992, 1996 and 1998.

Predominantly hardwood forests, Hickman County has not seen nearly as much hunting pressure as it did when tens of thousands of acres were enrolled in the TWRA Public Hunting Area Program back then.

“Pressure isn’t there like it was in the 1980s,” Ratajczak said. “Hickman County is part of Law Enforcement Area 22 and we have conducted surveys for several years in that management unit. The population is healthy, with approximately 20 deer per square mile. The number of hunters decreased when it moved from public hunting to private le
asing.”