There are lots of statistics published pertaining to deer hunting. This is not a comprehensive guide to them, but a crash-course in how to quickly get enough information to make COMPARISIONS between areas and make informed decisions on where to allocate limited hunting time.
I'm going to use my home state of Alabama as an example. We have pretty terrible record keeping because we can hardly read and we dang sure can't 'rithmetic. Your state probably has better info.
First things first. NDA publishes and annual Deer Report. Here's the 2021 one (https://www.deerassociation.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Final-DR2021.pdf)
It's broad in scope but useful. Most of the reports are backdated 2 years, so you're reading 2019 info. Here's some things you can find out about Alabama in less than 10 minutes:
Another great national source of buck harvest info is the P&Y records. For a small annual fee, those can be accessed here: (http://trophies.pope-young.org/)
It's a little work, but you can copy/paste the info from their database into your very own excel spreadsheet. Most states also have a state trophy database To date, I have not found one that charged a fee to access it, but they may not be as well organized as P&Y. Alabama does not, but it used to (Alabama Whitetail Records) and I luckily pulled some of that info for my use before they went defunct. Here is a link to a spreadsheet that has some of that info: (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...ouid=100433664011716621143&rtpof=true&sd=true)
You'll notice that if you examine counties in the state by trophy numbers, they're fairly concentrated. There's an exponential increase in trophies recorded in the best vs the worst counties
Most states also have harvest information, on top of any trophy database they maintain (https://game.dcnr.alabama.gov/Report/County/Deer)
Again, you'll notice a huge spread. The county with the most deer harvested has over 5.5k deer dead. The county with the least has barely 1k.
So in a quick google search you can get estimates of harvest numbers, harvest sex ratios, harvest age structure, and trophy buck records per county. With a quick visit to the US Census site (https://www.census.gov/data.html) you can pull population and and other data that can be combined with harvest data. This is important because a more populated or larger county may look better than a less populated or smaller county, but when you adjust for those variables the difference may wash out or result in the smaller county coming out ahead.
Public land numbers are more useful, but harder to get. Alabama doesn't really keep good data. Mississippi actually keeps relatively helpful data pertaining to their WMA properties. Here's an example (https://www.mdwfp.com/media/302239/dmap_report_leaf-river_2020.pdf)
Generally you will find that in addition to states and counties being very different from each other, different public properties in a given area can be ranked as well.
QUICK NOTE! People are quick to point out that all of these figures are estimates. This is true. They are inaccurate estimates arrived at by taking samples. BUT, we can fairly reasonably assume that errors high and low should be relatively consistent across the board and therefore can be used to COMPARE and RANK areas. Basically, we can get a rough idea of whether one county is better or worse than another, and a rough idea of the magnitude of difference.
By the time you put all this information together, you should have a pretty informative spreadsheet. Alabama does not have public land data, as mentioned, but by putting together some of the stuff I talked about above (and combining it with light pollution and soil type maps to help identify hot spots that may cut across part of several counties like the black belt) you can come up with something like this:
(https://docs.google.com/document/d/...ouid=100433664011716621143&rtpof=true&sd=true)
WHOAH!!! NUTTERBUSTER!!! ***, MAN?!?!?!? Why are you publishing this data?
Partially because I'm ok with shooting myself in the foot to prove a point. Partially because I know most Alabamians can't read or 'rithmetic and our hunting isn't good enough to attract OOSers. Partially because I'm confident enough in my own abilities to know that even if a meaningful number of folks adjust their hunting to account for the above info, I can still perform above the average and eventually re-crunch the numbers once they update to see what they new hot spots are.
It's worth mentioning also that your state/district/county/local wildlife biologist works for you. A Certified Wildlife Biologist has at least a 4 year degree and 5 year experience working in the field. By the time one makes it up the ranks to where they manage a state's deer program they commonly have at least 2 to 3 decades of experience and a PhD in the area. They're highly knowledgeable and generally less biased towards/against a particular area based on personal experience. Several of them were quite helpful when I recently inquired as to the average size of a mature buck in the state, which is pretty low compared to what is commonly held up as an example of a "trophy" buck.
Compiling data like this is a great way to prioritize where to spend your time, set realistic expectations about your hunting area, and generally understand what success can look like in YOUR area. America is a big country with big differences in factors that impact the structure and health of a deer herd. A very small number of hunters end up with a disproportionately loud voice in the conversation, and you may find that what they preach as gospel does not seem to translate well to your deer.
I'm going to use my home state of Alabama as an example. We have pretty terrible record keeping because we can hardly read and we dang sure can't 'rithmetic. Your state probably has better info.
First things first. NDA publishes and annual Deer Report. Here's the 2021 one (https://www.deerassociation.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Final-DR2021.pdf)
It's broad in scope but useful. Most of the reports are backdated 2 years, so you're reading 2019 info. Here's some things you can find out about Alabama in less than 10 minutes:
- 47 bucks were harvested per 100 hunters, or 1 every 1.8 miles
- The above 2 numbers are, oddly, PERFECTLY average for the southeastern region defined by the NDA
- 59% of the bucks harvested made 3.5yo or better, slightly better than regional average of 53% and trending slightly upwards from 2 years prior
- 68 does were harvested per 100 hunters, with a 1.5 ratio to bucks. (higher than the regional average of 0.9)
- 78% (75% regional) of our deer get killed during rifle season, 19% (16% regional) by bow or crossbow, and only 3% (9% regional) by muzzleloader.
- We're killing 23% fewer deer than we were killing 10 years ago
Another great national source of buck harvest info is the P&Y records. For a small annual fee, those can be accessed here: (http://trophies.pope-young.org/)
It's a little work, but you can copy/paste the info from their database into your very own excel spreadsheet. Most states also have a state trophy database To date, I have not found one that charged a fee to access it, but they may not be as well organized as P&Y. Alabama does not, but it used to (Alabama Whitetail Records) and I luckily pulled some of that info for my use before they went defunct. Here is a link to a spreadsheet that has some of that info: (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...ouid=100433664011716621143&rtpof=true&sd=true)
You'll notice that if you examine counties in the state by trophy numbers, they're fairly concentrated. There's an exponential increase in trophies recorded in the best vs the worst counties
Most states also have harvest information, on top of any trophy database they maintain (https://game.dcnr.alabama.gov/Report/County/Deer)
Again, you'll notice a huge spread. The county with the most deer harvested has over 5.5k deer dead. The county with the least has barely 1k.
So in a quick google search you can get estimates of harvest numbers, harvest sex ratios, harvest age structure, and trophy buck records per county. With a quick visit to the US Census site (https://www.census.gov/data.html) you can pull population and and other data that can be combined with harvest data. This is important because a more populated or larger county may look better than a less populated or smaller county, but when you adjust for those variables the difference may wash out or result in the smaller county coming out ahead.
Public land numbers are more useful, but harder to get. Alabama doesn't really keep good data. Mississippi actually keeps relatively helpful data pertaining to their WMA properties. Here's an example (https://www.mdwfp.com/media/302239/dmap_report_leaf-river_2020.pdf)
Generally you will find that in addition to states and counties being very different from each other, different public properties in a given area can be ranked as well.
QUICK NOTE! People are quick to point out that all of these figures are estimates. This is true. They are inaccurate estimates arrived at by taking samples. BUT, we can fairly reasonably assume that errors high and low should be relatively consistent across the board and therefore can be used to COMPARE and RANK areas. Basically, we can get a rough idea of whether one county is better or worse than another, and a rough idea of the magnitude of difference.
By the time you put all this information together, you should have a pretty informative spreadsheet. Alabama does not have public land data, as mentioned, but by putting together some of the stuff I talked about above (and combining it with light pollution and soil type maps to help identify hot spots that may cut across part of several counties like the black belt) you can come up with something like this:
(https://docs.google.com/document/d/...ouid=100433664011716621143&rtpof=true&sd=true)
WHOAH!!! NUTTERBUSTER!!! ***, MAN?!?!?!? Why are you publishing this data?
Partially because I'm ok with shooting myself in the foot to prove a point. Partially because I know most Alabamians can't read or 'rithmetic and our hunting isn't good enough to attract OOSers. Partially because I'm confident enough in my own abilities to know that even if a meaningful number of folks adjust their hunting to account for the above info, I can still perform above the average and eventually re-crunch the numbers once they update to see what they new hot spots are.
It's worth mentioning also that your state/district/county/local wildlife biologist works for you. A Certified Wildlife Biologist has at least a 4 year degree and 5 year experience working in the field. By the time one makes it up the ranks to where they manage a state's deer program they commonly have at least 2 to 3 decades of experience and a PhD in the area. They're highly knowledgeable and generally less biased towards/against a particular area based on personal experience. Several of them were quite helpful when I recently inquired as to the average size of a mature buck in the state, which is pretty low compared to what is commonly held up as an example of a "trophy" buck.
Compiling data like this is a great way to prioritize where to spend your time, set realistic expectations about your hunting area, and generally understand what success can look like in YOUR area. America is a big country with big differences in factors that impact the structure and health of a deer herd. A very small number of hunters end up with a disproportionately loud voice in the conversation, and you may find that what they preach as gospel does not seem to translate well to your deer.
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