Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting how many deer have you gotten

7 multiple years and IIRC one year 8. That'd be NY & PA.....

Typically 5-6.

With a rifle, I am not sure. Didn't hunt for a number of years because of time constraints, kids, business etc.

But I do know I've killed around a dozen with trucks.

I got 23 or 24 in 40 yrs of hunting with gun and bow. Some does, mostly bucks though. Not many but here in Wis. if you are stuck on public land you really need to hunt to see a deer. Some guys have a lot of private land and that makes a huge difference. Not me , I am too cheap to spend money on land for some deer. Oh well.

Private land makes a big difference here as well. And by private I mean exclusive hunting rights.


Can be tough to find a really nice buck on public ground(here locally northeast MT). Especially with limited time.

Seems like it gets harder every year.

Where I hunt the number of deer taken annually per square mile is .1 to 1.1. I have kept a detailed journal of the details of each of my days in the woods since 1989. I average just over one a year, mostly bucks. Some years I have not taken a shot, and many times have shot 2-3 in a year.

After two consecutive years not shooting a deer, the 1994 season was going poorly for me seeing any bucks, then on 11/14 I walked out the backdoor of our home heading into the breeze at about 1:30 PM after a trip to town with my wife. I hadn't gone a half mile when I spotted movement coming through the woods just to my left. I shot the 8 point buck which was right on a doe.

The very next morning I was hunting in the opposite direction at the house and about a mile in. Just as I was getting ready to settle down for a seat on a log, another 8 pointer walked in through the balsams just as the sun was getting above the trees. The morning light illuminating his head and antlers as he was peaking around the trees was a peak hunting experience I can picture like it was yesterday. In that instant he ended up affording me a shot through his neck at about 30 feet.

Many years we lose 30-50% of the fawn crop to winter kill. I only see one or two deer some seasons, and may only need to take one shot. Last year I didn't see a deer until day 3, and then saw 7 inside of an hour, the last one being the buck I shot.

I can walk miles in almost any direction and not cross a road, see another boot track, and never see another hunter.

The experiences afforded from this type of hunting situation have been incredible, and are among my most cherished memories. I have had a wolf come in to a can call, had some dandy bucks come in at almost a charge to grunt calls, and noisily cross a beaver pond, breaking ice, to a can call. I have shot deer from tree stands, homemade ground blinds, tracking in snow, and just ambling around and being in the right place at the right time. Some days finding a deer seems like finding a needle in a hay stack, and other days they are found regularly in a particular area, only to have a pack of wolves move in to make them scarce again.

30. I killed one a year in PA. Here I just hope to be able to do that. In PA I saw deer daily year round. Here I seldom ever see a deer and when I scout gamelands I see very little sign.

If you ain't seeing more deer in NC than you did in PA, you're either blind or living/hunting in ENTIRELY the wrong places. Catawba is either sex for deer hunting with firearms from Nov. 21-Jan.2. Counting archery and BP, you can start killing deer in Sept and not stop until the second of January. There's no daily bag limit, and you can keep buying and filling bonus tags (2x) as long as you want to keep spending the cash and killing deer.

There are reasons for that, and it starts with the fact that there are a metric schit ton of deer there.

Well, Mike is seeing the metro Charlotte/Lake Norman hunting crowd effects there on public land.

I finished a job in Maiden a couple months ago on private property that we had to beat the deer back with cattle prods they were so thick.

I deal with a lot of guys in North East PA, near Scranton. Those guys think it's crazy how many deer we kill here. They're only allowed 1 buck and 1 doe and they're lucky if they can do that. They claim the bears and coyotes have hurt the population. Years ago, we used to think PA was the place to go to shoot deer, but NOT. Now if you want to kill turkeys, that's the place to be. They've got hurds of them grazing like cattle up there.

I asked my 95 year od granddad the same question shortly before he passed (we loved to talk hunting). He thought for a minute and said "80 or 81 - just a few more bucks than does" that was from the 1930s up through 2005 in NY state.

Here in NY state we are allowed one "regular" buck tag, one over the counter muzzle loading tag. And you can apply for a doe tag which in my experience you get about 50% of the time. So if you muzzle load you can get about 2 and a half deer a year. The muzzle loading season in recent years is only open in December (after the regular season!) so the deer are very wary by then. Some years I get 2 deer. Some years 1. There have been years I did not fill a tag despite my best efforts. It is not unusual to hunt for days without seeing a single deer, let alone one with antlers.

I started hunting 25 years ago but didn't kill a deer until the 4th year. In the last 21 years I have killed 20 whitetail. If any of you guys have too many deer or extra tags I'd be happy to help!

They tell me EHD took a large bite out of the herd here a few years ago. And in PA, I lived next to Ft. Indiantown Gap military base which was loaded with deer. So that is why they were such an everyday part of life for me before.

50+

All killed in various parts of NY with rifle, shotgun, pistol, bow, and muzzleloader. Hoping to add PA hunting to my bag of tricks. This is my 21st year of deer hunting.

Looking at everybody who has responded and their location will give a clue as to why you see some of what I consider to be large numbers of deer taken in a lifetime.

Most of the respondents are from the East, Midwest, South. Amazing to hear that some have "unlimited" take for does or even limits that are greater than 1

I would say that in the Western states, and I'm speaking of NM, the limit is 1 mature buck. And that's considering if you are even lucky enough to be drawn for a tag in the lottery system we have. We just don't have the deer numbers that you see in the east and south. I'm always amazed at the number of deer I see as road kill in those areas.

Unless you are very lucky in our draw, own some or have access to private land, or have a boatload of cash to buy a mule deer tag on private land, the number killed will be less than 1 per year as my guess. That's what it is for me.

Hell, I've been on deer hunts where no one even sees a buck to shoot in a short 3 to 5 day season...another issue.

Maybe I misunderstood the OP's question......in my lifetime I've killed around 125. 75 buck and 50 doe +/-

Glad you said that Sam, especially from a guy from Montana. Now I dont feel like as bad of a hunter. On public land in northern WIs. you can go several days without seeing a deer. Last weekend I saw a doe and a small buck on Saturday evening. As I though about it, I realized it has been 6 years since I've seen a buck on public land up here. That is sad. Even though I dont hunt it as much anymore, it's sad none the less. I bet you fair much better than me. It sucks here , really bad. Southern WIs. where I hunt public land has more deer, but the human activity is incredible and keeps them from moving till night time most days.

7 mulies from 3 states in the 42 years that I could have hunted. 2 from Washington state, 2 from Montana, 3 from Idaho. One with a Mossberg 880B in 243 Win, two with a Ruger M77 in 300 Win Mag, one with a Weatherby Accumark in 280 Rem, two with a Model 70 in 7mm Rem Mag, one with a Model 70 in 270 Win. I've bagged maybe twice that number of Antelope.

Obviously I haven't been in areas where multiple tags per year are available, and I was unable to hunt every year due to various circumstances. Finally, over the last 10 years I have passed up on several bucks looking for better horns. I could have run my total to maybe a dozen or so if I hadn't passed looking for a better one, and then ended up with tag soup.

Work has kept me from even getting out deer hunting this year. I hope to get two days of elk season.

I will say that whitetail are coming on stronger in parts of Idaho, so maybe my count will grow some.....

In general western deer hunting is more restricted than eastern, but here in Montana we can not only buy one general over-the-counter "A" tag (normally good for either a mule deer or whitetail buck in most parts of the state, or a doe in some places), plus one OTC "B" tag for whitetails does in about 2/3 of the state. Plus we can apply for another doe tag in some areas. This year I have my A-tag and drew a whitetail B-tag, and can still buy at least one more OTC whitetail doe tag. A friend owns a ranch in an area where you can buy up to 4, but they can only be used on private land. Dunno if he needs any help with thining his does this year or not.

Right now Montana's overall deer populations are down from historic highs due to hard winters and EHD, but are coming back. In the past we've even been able to draw an additional whitetail buck tag, or buy up to 6-7 doe tags, for both species, in various parts of the state.

I've also hunted deer in at least a dozen other states, plus three Canadian provinces, one state in Old Mexico (twice), and in Ireland, New Zealand and the Czech Republic. Some of the hunts in both North America and elsewhere have been partially cull hunts, and as a result I've taken a bunch of deer. Don't know the total over 40 years, but in some years it's been 10-12.

I haven't taken many deer compared to a lot of hunters on here. We are also on the northern fringe of deer habitat, and our populations are low compared to many areas further south. Big deer though. I have kept track of each animal I have killed, but i'm not about to go through my journals and figure it out for this post. I know that I've taken about 130 head of big game, but whitetail deer are a sort of consolation prize around here. I hunt locally for elk, moose, mule deer, and the odd bear. and our waterfowl hunting is some of the best in the world. So if my freezer has an elk and maybe a moose and a few dozen geese in it I just don't bother with deer. But I've probably shot 60 or so, mostly whitetails. 1-2 per year on average over 40 years. Last year I took three mule deer. I haven't shot a whitetail for three years, they have had some bad winters here. I might change that this year, but since I have an elk and a moose in the freezer already, I'm going to make it hard on myself, rattling/calling only and hunting with an open sight .44 mag carbine. It's fun to have options with a full freezer.

I started deer hunting in '89. Killed first deer in '93 and have not gone a year without since. First killed more than 2 in '01, and have not killed less than 4 since. Most is 10, but 5-10 every year. Just under a 100 right now.

The deer population in my area seems to have dropped in the last few years, so I will probably be killing less. I live an earn a buck area so passing does is not an option, unless I just give it all up.

18 seasons in a row now for me striking out but thats why
it is called hunting!
Been hunting since the late 1960`s to now
and in ALL that time just 3 deer total to show for it.