North Carolina’s deer herd of 1.25 million appears to have stabilized. The 2009-10 deer harvest was third highest on record and the antlered buck harvest was third highest on record. Hunters continued a three-year trend of harvesting more antlerless deer than antlered bucks.

Prior to the 2007-08 deer-hunting season, the buck-to-doe harvest ratio was around 60 percent. The trend since then, of hunters killing more antlerless deer, is partly due to N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s regulations aimed at increasing antlerless deer harvests. Another explanation is education. Quality deer management’s creed of “shoot does and let bucks grow” is having an impact, based on hunter reports of the increasing sizes and numbers of trophy racks.

One regulation that is also having an impact is the two-buck regulation that went into affect in the western regions the same time the harvest ratios began to shift toward hunters taking more antlerless deer. Another was the implementation three years ago of bonus antlerless harvest report cards for private lands. Bonus antlerless harvest report cards can now be used on public lands other than game lands.

During the 2009-10 season, 48.0 percent of the total deer harvest consisted of antlered bucks. During 2008-09, 48.2 percent of the harvest consisted of antlered bucks. Button bucks accounted for 7.5 percent in 2009-10, which is an increase from 6.3 percent in 2008-09.

The 2009-10 antlered buck harvest was third highest on record, following the 2006-07 buck harvest at 85,459 and 2007-08 at 83,665. The 2009-10 total deer harvest of 169,273 included 81,283 antlered bucks, 12,611 button bucks and 75,379 does. The 2008-09 harvest of 176,297 included 85,051 antlered bucks, 13,359 button bucks and 77,887 does.

Evin Stanford is the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s Surveys and Research Biologist for Deer, Turkey and Wild Boar. He analyses big game harvest data.

“Our deer hunting regulations have essentially remained the same for several years,” Stanford said. “There have been some changes in the DMAP rules that allow landowners of smaller properties to take advantage of the program, but no changes that would significantly impact the deer harvest.”

But Stanford said there was a shift harvest locations. Proportionally fewer deer, including bucks, were taken in the coastal plain. Less pressure last season could translate into more mature bucks in coastal counties this season.

“It could also mean that years of liberal antlerless harvests are having an impact on the population,” he said. “It will take a few more years for our modeling will show whether it’s a decline in the coastal deer population.”

Although few hunters harvest more than one deer, the latest survey shows those who harvest a buck usually harvest more than one.

“It’s counter-intuitive, because just over half of all hunters take only one deer,” Stanford said. “But the two-buck rule could be having more of an impact than we thought. In the coastal region, the four-buck rule is still in effect because that’s what hunters wanted. Every three years, we conduct a hunter harvest survey. Last year’s survey was really surprising.”

The survey included 239,367 deer hunters who reported harvesting 146,131 deer. Of those who harvested any deer, 41 percent took one buck, 30 percent took two bucks, 12 percent took three bucks and 9 percent took four bucks. That means a relatively low percentage of hunters is taking a high percentage of bucks.

“This could mean that extending the two-buck rule to the coastal counties could have the impact of lowering the statewide antlered buck harvest,” Stanford said.

A change to the harvest reporting system asked whether dogs were used to take deer and whether the deer was taken at a specific game land. In most counties where dog hunting is legal, 20 to 25 percent of deer were taken using dogs. However, in Warren County, 56 percent were taken using dogs, in Gates County, 49 percent and in Brunswick County, 47 percent.

Hunters reported taking 3,776 antlered bucks on game lands, with 559 of them taken using dogs. Antlered bucks comprised 56 percent of the game land harvest of 6,727 deer.

The top 10 counties for antlered buck harvest during 2009-10 hunting season were Halifax, 2,502; Northampton, 2,336; Wilkes, 2,037; Bertie, 2,000; Pender, 1,841; Duplin, 1,665, Wake, 1,574; Beaufort, 1,569; Edgecombe, 1,532 and Franklin, 1,510.

Eight of these counties made the top-10 list last year, but Wake and Edgecombe counties replaced Columbus and Bladen.

These are traditional counties for producing high total deer and antlered buck harvests. All of these counties, except Wilkes, are in the eastern part of the state. Seven are in the northeastern corner of the state.

Two things make coastal counties stand out in terms of total antlered buck harvests aside from large deer populations. The first is they are under the four-buck rule, allowing individual hunters to harvest more bucks than in western counties. The second is that they all have large landmasses. Wilkes has the largest landmass of all mountain counties.

But a county being in the top 10 counties for total buck harvest doesn’t necessarily mean it is one of the best for harvesting a buck. The picture becomes clearer when the amount of available deer habitat is considered. Biologists consider only the acreage of deer habitat in a county to arrive at a more reliable statistic: the antlered bucks harvested per square mile of available habitat.

The top 10 counties in terms of the antlered bucks harvested per square mile of habitat were Alleghany, 6.82; Vance, 5.75; Northampton, 5.17; Wake, 4.73; Halifax, 4.39; Franklin, 4.26; Caswell, 4.03; Alamance, 3.93; Davie, 3.78; Hertford, 3.76. Eight of these counties made the top ten list for antlered bucks per square mile of habitat during the 2008-09 season.