Pennsylvania Game News - May 2020 - 49

in Penn's Woods."
Across the 23 Wildlife Management
Units (WMUs) used by the Game
Commission to manage whitetails, the
antlerless deer harvest decreased in almost
half of them. The largest harvest declines
occurred in WMU 2H, 39 percent, WMU
3A, 23 percent and WMU 1B, 20 percent.
WMUs posting the largest antlerless
deer harvest increases were WMU 3B,
23 percent; WMU 4D, 21 percent; and
WMU 4B, 20 percent.
On the antlered deer side of WMUlevel harvests, the buck harvest dropped
in only three units: WMUs 2C, 2H and
5D. The largest increases in antlered deer
harvest were in WMU 2G, 29 percent;
WMU 3C, 22 percent; WMU 4C, 21
percent; and WMU 3A, 19 percent.
The percentage of older bucks in the
2019-20 deer harvest remained amazingly
high. About 66 percent of the bucks taken
by hunters were at least 2½ years old. The
remainder were 1½ years old.
"Pennsylvania deer hunters consistently
continue to take 2½-year and older bucks
over younger antlered bucks - by a twoto-one margin - in the Commonwealth,"
said Game Commission Executive
Director Bryan Burhans. "If you hunted
deer before antler restrictions, you know
how significant this is. Most of us have
waited a lifetime for deer hunting like
Pennsylvania has today!"
About 69 percent of the antlerless deer
harvest was adult females; button-bucks
comprised 16 percent and doe fawns made
up 15 percent. In the 2018-19 seasons,
adult females comprised 66 percent of the
antlerless deer harvest.
Bowhunters accounted for about a
third of Pennsylvania's 2019-20 overall
deer harvest, taking 145,908 deer (74,190
bucks and 71,718 antlerless deer) with
either bows or crossbows. The 2018-19
MAY 2020 	

Deer harvests 2019-20
2018-19 harvests shown in parentheses
Antlered
WMU 1A:
WMU 1B:
WMU 2A:
WMU 2B:
WMU 2C:
WMU 2D:
WMU 2E:
WMU 2F:
WMU 2G:
WMU 2H:
WMU 3A:
WMU 3B:
WMU 3C:
WMU 3D:
WMU 4A:
WMU 4B:
WMU 4C:
WMU 4D:
WMU 4E:
WMU 5A:
WMU 5B:
WMU 5C:
WMU 5D:
Unknown:

6,400 (5,800)
8,700 (8,000)
6,900 (6,000)
5,500 (5,000)
9,400 (9,600)
13,000 (11,800)
6,400 (6,300)
9,000 (7,700)
8,100 (6,300)	
2,400 (2,500) 	
5,700 (4,800)	
7,600 (7,000)	
9,400 (7,700)
6,000 (5,200)	
6,000 (5,100) 	
5,700 (5,300) 	
7,000 (5,800) 	
8,700 (8,300) 	
7,300 (7,000) 	
3,400 (3,100) 	
10,200 (9,200)
7,600 (7,600)
2,500 (2,600) 	
340 (50) 	

Antlerless
13,200 (12,400)
12,700 (15,800)
9,900 (10,900)
10,400 (12,000)
14,069 (11,787)
18,888 (20,958)
9,473 (9,701)
9,724 (7,973)
6,105 (7,402)
1,100 (1,800)
5,700 (7,400)
10,300 (8,400)
12,800 (12,200)
4,900 (5,700)
7,924 (8,230)
8,285 (6,916)
8,300 (7,200)
10,955 (9,081)
9,500 (9,300)
5,000 (4,600)
15,345 (14,608)
14,427 (16,415)
6,700 (6,000)
496 (169)

archery buck harvest was 54,350, while
the archery antlerless deer harvest was
56,369; unseasonably warm weather and
rain impacted many fall bowhunting days
in 2018.
"That bowhunters added 35,000 more
deer to the overall archery deer harvest
suggests bowhunters continue to improve
their harvest success," Rosenberry said.
The muzzleloader harvest - 29,604 -
was up from to the previous year's harvest
of 23,909. The 2019-20 muzzleloader
harvest included 1,260 antlered bucks
compared to 1,290 bucks in the 2018-19
seasons.
49
Pennsylvania Game News - May 2020

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