During the past deer season (including the early September antlerless seasons), 206,586 deer were reported harvested by deer hunters in Virginia.
This total included 105,201 antlered bucks, 982 shed bucks, 12,567 button bucks, and 87,836 does (42.5% females). Archery (including crossbows) accounted for 14% of the deer kill; muzzleloaders, 26%; and firearms, 60%.
The youth and apprentice weekend resulted in the harvest of 2,890 deer. When and where deer hunting with dogs is legal, deer taken with the use of dogs made up 50% of the total harvest. The numbers above do not include deer taken on out-of-season deer kill permits or those deer hit and killed by vehicles.
Deer hunters who would like to know the annual deer kill totals by county dating back to 1947, including the county 2023 totals, can find them on the Department’s website.
The 2023-2024 deer harvest was up 5% from the last 10-year average of 196,862. Harvest during the 2022-23 season was down 3% from the previous season, likely due to a bumper crop of acorns. This dip in harvest likely created a “stockpile” of deer for hunters in the 23-24 season. Additionally, deer experienced a mild winter at the end of 2022, entered 2023 on a higher nutritional plane, and were more productive.
A number of new deer hunting regulations went into effect, which also may have resulted in increased harvest.
The special late seasons contributed an additional 1,945 antlerless deer to the harvest total, bringing our final tally to 208,531 and 42.8% females harvested.
The 2023-24 deer season was a busy one for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in Virginia. We had the most positives this past year than any other year since our surveillance began. This past year, we sampled just under 8,000 deer and detected 71 positives, 40 of which came from Frederick County alone..
DMA3 (Carroll, Floyd, Franklin, Montgomery, Patrick, Pulaski, Roanoke, and Wythe counties)
DMA3 will now include the counties of Franklin, Roanoke and Wythe due to the locations of positives detected in Carroll, Floyd, and Montgomery. During the 2023 season a total of 1,449 samples were taken within DMA3. This sampling effort yielded positive detections in Floyd (four), Montgomery (two), and the first detection in Carroll (one).
In fall 2023, 2,647 deer were tested statewide, predominantly via cooperating taxidermists, with several samples coming from clinical suspects and voluntary hunter submissions at regional drop-off sites.
New For Fall 2024
Deer regulations in Virginia are evaluated and amended on a biennial basis. Last year was a “reg year” with many new changes. This coming season will largely follow last year’s regulations, but a few changes will be in place with the establishment of DMA4.
DMA4 will consist of Bland, Smyth, and Tazewell Counties. Carcass transport restrictions will be in place here for the 2024 deer season. High-risk carcass parts (head, brain, and spinal cord) may not leave DMA4 except to enter DMA3.
Per State Administrative Code 4VAC15-40-285, a year-round deer feeding ban is now in effect for Bedford, Botetourt, Henry, Russell, Smyth, and Washington Counties (see Figure 3 for a current map of all VA counties with a year-round deer feeding ban)
Mandatory CWD Sampling Day will be on November 16, 2024 in Carroll, Franklin, Patrick, Pulaski, Shenandoah, Tazewell, and Wythe Counties.
Deer management in western Virginia has been about the same for the past few decades and remains two very different deer management situations.
First, deer herds on private lands over most of western Virginia have been fairly stable over the past two-plus decades (with the exception of Alleghany, Bath, and Highland counties). Relatively stable deer herds are expected on private lands west of the Blue Ridge. If there is a change, hopefully it will be a slight decline.
Second, with the obvious exception of CWD in the northern Shenandoah Valley and the New River Valley areas, the biggest challenge in deer management in western Virginia over the past 20 to 30 years has been, and continues to be, the public land deer management situation.
Over the past 25 plus years there has been an approximately 40% decline in the number of deer hunters on western public lands (primarily National Forest) and a corresponding 66% decline in the deer kill. To address this decline, the number of either-sex deer hunting days on western public lands has been reduced significantly over the past decade or more.
These changes have been successful in reducing the female deer kill. While we’ve reduced female harvest on public lands, the western public land deer population has not and is not expected to recover to past deer population levels unless there is a significant change/major improvement in deer habitat conditions. HD does not traditionally play a major role in deer management west of the Blue Ridge, but recent summers suggest that could change with an increasingly warmer, drier climate.
So what is the forecast for the fall 2024 deer season? Unless there is a significant HD event, deer populations and the deer kill across most of the state should be stable to increasing. A major increase or decrease in the statewide deer kill total is not expected. Over the past 30 years, the statewide annual deer kill has been relatively stable and ranged from about 179,000 to 259,000 and averaged about 212,000.
We’ve had two mild winters in a row, so we ought to see plenty of healthy and productive animals this coming season, especially in those areas with above-average acorn production. Deer should be on a higher nutritional plane heading into the growing season, where bucks can really pack on body mass and grow antlers and does can pump out plenty of highly nutritious milk for their fawns. Fawns that start their lives on a higher nutritional plane tend to be more productive later in life than those who start out in poorer shape. We likely had one heck of a cohort of buck fawns from last summer after the big mast crop of fall 2022, so we might see an uptick in yearling six- and eight-pointers this fall.
Past experience indicates that the ups and downs in annual deer kill totals are in part attributable to mast (acorns, mostly) conditions and/or HD outbreaks. In years of poor mast crops, the deer kill typically goes up. In years of good mast crops, the deer kill typically goes down. The 2022 season had a big acorn crop and a dip in deer harvest. Last year’s mast crop wasn’t as great, and the harvest went up. I can’t forecast the acorn crop, so make sure you get out there and get your scouting done this summer.
Justin Folks, DWR deer project leader
