Although some kill tags could still trickle in, figures taken from TWRA's online harvest reports indicate that hunters bagged 173,466 deer on statewide hunts and 6,704 on wildlife management area hunts, for a grand total of 180,171 deer.
While the statewide total is just over 600 deer short of the record — set in 2004 with 174,077 deer — the grand total, which includes deer taken on statewide hunts and deer taken on WMA hunts, is a record. The previous record was set in 2004, with 179,542 deer killed, according to TWRA's 2005 Big Game Harvest Report.
The reason for the record? More deer killed on WMA hunts. In 2004, hunters tagged only 4,780 deer on WMA hunts. This year's WMA harvest is the third-highest WMA harvest ever. The record was set in 1989, with 7,046 deer killed on WMA hunts. In 1991, hunters tagged 6,847 deer on WMA hunts.
As usual, the gun harvest was far-and-away the biggest harvest for Tennessee hunters; firearms hunters bagged a total of 112,871 deer on statewide hunts. Muzzleloader hunters bagged 38,975 deer, while archery hunters bagged 21,630 deer, including 16,115 with traditional or compound bows and 5,515 with crossbows. That's the second-highest archery harvest ever; in 1997, archery hunters checked in 22,897 deer.
Overall, the 2006 statewide harvest was up eight percent over last year's harvest of 160,096 deer. In individual weapons classifications, the gun harvest was up 6.1 percent over last year's harvest of 106,015; the muzzleloader harvest was up 13 percent over last year's harvest of 33,935; and the archery harvest was up 6.9% over last year's harvest of 20,146.
This year's total harvest included 89,963 antlered bucks (49.9 percent of the overall harvest), 77,086 does (42.8 percent), 10,186 button bucks (5.7 percent) and 2,950 antlerless bucks (1.6 percent).
The county hunts (statewide hunts) included 86,911 bucks (50.1 percent of the overall harvest), 74,155 does (42.7 percent), 9,585 button bucks (5.5 percent) and 2,835 antlerless bucks (1.6 percent). The total antlerless harvest was 49.9 percent.
Those numbers are similar to last year, when the total antlerless harvest was 51.08 percent and the total doe harvest was 42.7 percent. The best year, from a buck:doe ratio standpoint, in Tennessee's harvest history was 2004, when 44.5 percent of all deer taken were does.
While the grand total of deer taken in 2006 was a record, a number of counties also set harvest records in 2006, including:
• Bledsoe, 926 deer. Old record: 844 (2004).
• Blount, 510 deer. Old record: 417 (2005).
• Carter, 1,233 deer. Old record: 1,191 (2002).
• Chester, 1,364 deer. Old record: 1,344 (2001).
• Cocke, 1,009 deer. Old record: 909 (2003).
• Fayette, 5,063 deer. Old record: 4,874 (2004).
• Greene, 1,272 deer. Old record: 1,200 (2005).
• Hamblen, 431 deer. Old record: 339 (2003 and 1996).
• Hamilton, 1,550 deer. Old record: 1,297 (2005).
• Hardeman, 6,360 deer. Old record: 6,262 (2004).
• Hardin, 3,288 deer. Old record: 2,969 (2004).
• Henderson, 1,711 deer. Old record: 1,695 (2003).
• Jefferson, 913 deer. Old record: 891 (2003).
• Knox, 490 deer. Old record: 390 (2005).
• Lincoln, 4,701 deer. Old record: 4,429 (2005).
• Loudon, 645 deer. Old record: 602 (2005).
• Madison, 3,807 deer. Old record: 3,439 (2000).
• Marshall, 2,535 deer. Old record: 2,480 (2005).
• Morgan, 1,329 deer. Old record: 1,179 (2004).
• Putnam, 1,477 deer. Old record: 1,379 (2004).
• Rhea, 2,131 deer. Old record: 1,919 (2004).
• Roane, 2,921 deer. Old record: 2,550 (2005).
• Shelby, 862 deer. Old record: 793 (2005).
• Smith, 2,922 deer. Old record: 2,898 (1991).
• Sullivan, 1,318 deer. Old record: 1,218 (2003).
• Warren, 1,063 deer. Old record: 1,016 (2004).
• Wayne, 3,568 deer. Old record: 3,528 (2005).
• White, 1,914 deer. Old record: 1,795 (2005).
The counties leading the pack in this year's deer harvest were no surprise, as once again Hardeman and Henry counties topped the list, followed by Fayette County and Giles County, with Lincoln County rounding out the top five. Carroll County, Montgomery County, Weakley County, Madison County and Franklin County were among top 10 counties for deer harvests as well.
Maury County placed 11th on the harvest list, followed by Wayne County, Hardin County and Hickman County, with Dickson County rounding out the top 15. The next five counties were Humphreys County, McNairy County, Lawrence County, Smith County and Roane County. Counties 21-25 were Sumner County, Hawkins County, Marshall County, Jackson County and Stewart County.
Of the deer which TWRA recorded at check-in stations or otherwise received biological data on, 50.51 percent of the bucks were yearling bucks, followed by 36.28 percent 2.5-year-old bucks, 11.34 percent 3.5-year-old bucks, 1.54 percent 4.5-year-old bucks and 0.53 percent 5.5-year-old bucks.
The average live weight of 1.5-year-old bucks was 119.9 pounds, for 2.5-year-old bucks was 152.01 pounds, for 3.5-year-old bucks was 174.05 pounds, for 4.5-year-old bucks was 186.41 pounds and for 5.5-year-old bucks was 200.85 pounds.
The average points for 1.5-year-old bucks was 4.39, for 2.5-year-old bucks was 6.96, for 3.5-year-old bucks was 8.04, for 4.5-year-old bucks was 8.61 and for 5.5-year-old bucks was 8.3.
The official harvest data for the 2006-'07 deer seasons will be included in the 2006 Big Game Harvest Report, which will be released later this year.
Click here for county-by-county data.
