Area Deer Hunting Season Wrap-up
By Martha Slater

Hunters in Orange County harvested 874 white-tailed deer during the archery, youth, and rifle seasons this year. That’s a whopping 71% increase over the 510 taken last year, which was admittedly a poor year. In Windsor County, the take was 935 deer, a 53% increase over last year’s 610.

The 2006 archery season is on the books as having the 14^th highest bow total in that season’s 54-year history. When the final figures are in, this year’s rifle season is expected to come close to the 2004 total of 5,589. That was the last year that hunters were allowed to shoot spikehorned bucks.

The 2006 youth season total is actually a record for the 10 years since its inception, and altogether, this year’s hunters have already reported more deer than last year.

Locally, the total number of deer taken during archery season, compares favorably to those from last year (in parentheses). During archery season, these were: Orange County, 283 (164) and Windsor County, 245 (161); during youth season, Orange County, 161 (103) and Windsor County, 120 (84); and during rifle season, Orange County, 430 (243) and Windsor County, 570 (365). The final figures for muzzleloader season, which just ended Dec. 10, won’t be available until next week.

State game warden Keith Gallant told the Herald that not only were larger numbers of deer taken this year than last year, the deer themselves were larger in size and healthier than last year.

"There were lots of three and four pointers and many with larger racks like six and eight pointers," Gallant noted. "Much of that was possibly due to the easier winter weather last year, so the deer made it though in good health and were able to put more energy into growth this past summer."

Gallant went on to explain that, "This year, there was a fairly good supply of beechnuts, so that gives the deer a variety of places to scrounge for food. If they don’t have to congregate to feed and are able to spread out, that makes it a little more difficult for hunters, because they don’t find a bunch of them all together."

Gallant noted that although the weather this year was not conducive to good hunting, "we still had a good season. The number of hunters getting licenses has been in a downward trend over the past several years, which is not exclusive to Vermont. It’s the same in New Hampshire and Maine and other northeastern states."

State wildlife biologist John Buck confirms that "the statewide deer kill is up from last year and hunters have told me they’ve also seen more deer than last year. Sometimes the deer kill numbers themselves are irrelevant if the hunters have at least seen the deer."

But, he said, though the numbers are up from last year, they’re not as high as they used to be "before the bad winters of 2001 and 2003."

Buck noted that the spikehorn law was implemented in 2005 "to reduce the hunter mortality in young bucks and raise hunter satisfaction. It’s still early to tell if it’s actually working or not. We need to go through several more years to see how many of the yearlings make it to four or five years of age."

From a biological perspective, a mild winter leads to high deer survivorship. That, Buck observed, "is good for the deer, but not so good for the many other forms of wildlife that are affected by an overabundance of deer. We’re not necessarily at that point in the state overall, but it’s something that can’t be ignored."

Local Reports

Ed Luce at Tewksbury’s in Randolph said the number of deer reported there was up this year. Last year, there were just 18 deer reported during rifle season and this year there were 29, although only two during muzzleloader season, as of Dec. 8, when he spoke with The Herald. He said he sold quite a few more licenses this year, many of them to people from out of state.

"This year, we saw a lot of four and six pointers," he said, adding that he thinks the spikehorn law is a good thing and hopes it stays in effect.

At the Snowsville General Store in East Braintree, Gene Booska noted that he had more deer reported this year, "but last year was the worst hunting year in 50 years, so it should be better!" He also thinks the new spikehorn law has helped. As of Dec. 8, he’d had only one deer reported during muzzleloader season, but there were 27 reported during the regular rifle season.

"It was way too warm this year and not enough snow, which would have helped for tracking," he observed. "Kids now don’t get into hunting the way they used to, though, and the overall number of hunters of all ages is down."

A representative of Locust Creek Outfitters in Bethel told The Herald that 56 deer were reported there during the regular rifle season and 14 during the muzzleloader season, which was up about 20% from last year.

The Hardware at Rochester is in its first year as a reporting station, so didn’t have statistics from last year to compare, but reported that 21 deer and one bear were reported there during regular rifle season, with the youth day total at five. As of December 8, two deer had been reported during muzzle loader season.

At Coburn’s General Store in Strafford, Melvin Coburn reported Monday that he’d had 51 deer reported during rifle season and 14 during muzzleloader season, compared to 40 and 17 last year. He said he sold about the same number of hunting licenses this year as he did last year.

"There seemed to be a lot more deer with good racks, probably because of hunters not being able to shoot anything under three points this year," Coburn commented.

Coburn, who has sold hunting licenses at his store for 30 years, agrees with others that the overall numbers of hunters participating in hunting season is "down a lot."

"Over the years, I think a lot of the out-of-staters got discouraged with coming up and not having much luck," Coburn observed. "Some of them didn’t even see any deer. I think the spikehorn law is a good thing because they need to be able to build up the herd a bit."

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