Tennessee's youth hunters bagged just over 8,000 in the annual Young Sportsman's Hunt, which concluded at 30 minutes after sundown this evening.

Though some kill tags could still trickle in, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency was reporting 8,076 deer killed tonight.

Despite the near-perfect weather enjoyed by juvenile hunters throughout the weekend, this year's harvest totals trail last year's totals, mirroring harvest numbers from the first segment of archery season, which concluded Friday.

This year's harvest total is about 15% less than last year's youth hunt harvest of 9,469 deer killed. During archery season, the harvest was off by more than 20%.

Of the deer killed this weekend, 4,428 were does, while 2,738 were antlered bucks. Some 910 were antlerless bucks, including button bucks.

The leading counties for the youth hunt were Hardeman, with 294 deer harvested, and Henry, with 233 deer harvested. Other leading counties included Giles (189), Humphreys (185) and Weakley (172).

So far this year, Tennessee hunters have harvested 22,777 deer, 25% fewer than the 30,192 harvested in the same time frame in 2006. A combination of deer die-offs attributed to EHD, unseasonably warm weather, and the ongoing drought, have all been blamed in turn for the harvest decline.