81% of harvested deer is from private land in the Northeast

[mazzgolf]

I'm reading the April 2023 edition of American Hunter. Page 28 article. "NDA deer report finds 88% of US whitetail deer harvest occurs on private land"

Think about that. The report said almost 9 out of 10 whitetails were harvested on private land. In the northeast the number is 81%... So basically 8 out of 10.

It was estimated 5.9 million deer were harvested in the country, and 5.2 million were taken on private land and about 700,000 on public.

Some more stats...

In Texas, 99% of all deer were harvested on private land (so virtually all of them!).

93% in the Southeast.

91% in the Midwest.

geez... I'm guessing this is part of the reason why participation in hunting is dropping.

Edited March 25, 2023 by mazzgolf

[hunterbob1]

Bull! Fake news

[fab]

I don’t believe that’s fake news.  
 

Sounds accurate and for certain one reason ppl don’t hunt in the numbers they did 50 years ago

 

My dads 84 he keeps telling me that today hunting is a rich man’s game 

 

they are very very few weekend warriors.   
 

50 years a lot of folks hunted opening day of 6 day then Saturday.   That’s it

 

I can recall stokes and the dwgnra.  Opening day was insane. You got their at 5 to get a place to park.     Those lic sales days are gone

 

 

[mazzgolf]

Article: https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nra/ah_202304/index.php?startid=28

Comprehensive Report: https://deerassociation.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/NDA-DR2023_WEB.pdf#page=15

Article text:

Aggregated Data:

 

New Jersey, it was 7 out of 10 deer harvested on private land - so slightly "better" here, but still. 30% public land harvest. Over a third of Northeastern states didn't report, so that could skew the regional numbers, but NJ did report the 70%/30% number. No state in the country (except MA) came close to an even 50/50 split. Private land rules when it comes to deer harvest in the US.

Edited March 25, 2023 by mazzgolf

[mazzgolf]

We (NJ) have the second highest percentage of public land deer harvest in the country.

[hunterbob1]

5 minutes ago, fab said:

I don’t believe that’s fake news.  
 

Sounds accurate and for certain one reason ppl don’t hunt in the numbers they did 50 years ago

 

My dads 84 he keeps telling me that today hunting is a rich man’s game 

 

they are very very few weekend warriors.   
 

50 years a lot of folks hunted opening day of 6 day then Saturday.   That’s it

 

I can recall stokes and the dwgnra.  Opening day was insane. You got their at 5 to get a place to park.     Those lic sales days are gone

 

 

I miss those days, 5:00 a.m. only vehicles on the highway everybody was wearing a orange hat the diners were full too, and at the end of the day after the hunt going home you'd see the successful hunters openly displaying their quarry without getting honked at and the middle finger

[fab]

Miss those 6 day hunts with my dad    We always had a full hot thermos and some spiced ham sandwiches     

Back then we heard more shooting by 8 am then I heard all week this year.   Times did change 

[Live to Hunt]

Privates better 😁

[hammer4reel]

betting some of the biggest bucks in NJ yearly come off public land .

‘Public land is always underrated 

[Woodsman416]

The numbers for the northeast are meaningless without including New York and Pennsylvania.

[mike033089]

I think the reason NJ and MA rank high public land is they are so densely populated.  Most private land is unhuntable. So public is the only option for most. my house is a bit over 6 acres. Can only bow hunt it and even then it’s not really “hunting” in my opinion, especially once the leaves drop. So many hunters only have public as an option. 

[archer36]

Huntable private land in NJ has been shrinking for years. Public lands have been constant or on the increase. Don't know if other States have Farmer Deer Kill Permits. If you include these kills in with private land, then the balance would tip a little in NJ. You would have a higher percent of kills private. But I don't think these kills are tracked or recorded. For the most part, the stats look believable to me across the board. 

Edited March 25, 2023 by archer36

[NorthJerseyHunter]

1 hour ago, Woodsman416 said:

The numbers for the northeast are meaningless without including New York and Pennsylvania.

Totally agree.

[DJ0808]

It would be interesting to see how many of those "private" land kills are on a small (<6 acre) parcel that bumps right up on a big public area like a WMA, SGL, or State Forest?

Also as @Woodsman416 said, not having NY or PA included really makes the Northeast data less definitive because these 2 states account for such a huge amount of whitetail hunting activity and both contain vast tracks of public land.

Not having NY and PA is like doing a study of crime in suburban vs urban northeast areas, but leaving out Philly and NYC. Yeah it's only two places, but they account for so much of it that not having them noticeably skews the rest of the data. It's a shame NY and PA wildlife management didn't provide these numbers.

Sorry not knocking the report, there is some very interesting info throughout it and I realize they had to present what they had, but as a developer of data analytics applications I always question what's behind the numbers in a report and what story does the data tell to the person reading it.

[archer36]

Virginia and West Virginia are in the Northeast? Never knew that. 

Edited March 25, 2023 by archer36