'A great year regardless:' Oklahoma deer hunters fall short of last season's record
Oklahoma hunters killed 117,638 deer this past season, short of last season's record total of 126,290.
The deer hunting seasons concluded Jan. 15. The final tally includes all seasons such as archery, muzzleloader, gun, youth and other special deer hunting seasons.
The 2020-21 deer seasons set a record in part because of the increase in deer hunters due to COVID-19. The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation reported a significant increase in hunting and fishing license sales in 2020.
There was an uptick in outdoors activities across the board as people had more idle time and fewer places to travel because of the pandemic.
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Dallas Barber, big game biologist for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, said the decline in the deer harvest compared with the previous record season was expected.
"That is kind of what we expected with most people being back to work, but a great year regardless," he said.
Does and antlerless deer represented almost 41% of the total harvest in the 2021-22 deer hunting seasons, something that pleased Barber. State wildlife officials have been pushing for more does to be taken by hunters for a better buck-to-doe ratio.
"Any time we can make it in that 40 to 45 percent range it tends to lead to healthier herds across the state," he said.
The total population of deer in Oklahoma is estimated to be 750,000 or more, and hunters routinely are killing a total of more than 100,000 each year. The last time the deer harvest didn't reach 100,000 was in 2016, and then it was barely under.
"We've been consistently at or above the 100,000 level since 2004," Barber said. "There are times it will fall a little below. Major weather events during rifle season can hamper the harvest. People aren't out hunting. Drought conditions and things like that can have a result in a poor deer harvest.
"From a biological standpoint we are not looking at an individual year. We are looking at long-term trends."
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Barber said the deer herd overall in Oklahoma is in great shape and can obviously handle a harvest of 100,000 or more annually by hunters. In fact, deer hunting is a necessary management tool, he said.
"When deer expand what their habitat can support, you run into malnourished herds and disease issues," he said. "There are a lot of things that can go wrong when you don't manage your deer herds. It's an overall healthier herd when you are keeping numbers at appropriate levels for the area."
Oklahoma has become a deer hunting destination for out of state hunters.
"You can see that in articles that are written by some of the major hunting publications," Barber said.
The final deer numbers still need to be verified, he said.
"We haven't gone through the harvest data yet to remove any duplicates or anything like that," Barber said.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma hunters fall short harvest record, still get 117K deer
