Hunters harvested more deer than in the same time span a year ago.

Until gun season opened, 2007 had been a year that had failed to live up to the hype of preseason predictions that 200,000 or more deer would be killed. It had been a year that saw every comparable time period fail to meet the record harvest of 2006, prompting discussions of how EHD might have negatively impacted Tennessee's deer herd and how warm weather might have played a role.

In archery season, the statewide harvest was down nearly 25% over the archery season a year ago. The juvenile hunt was off by nearly the same percentage, prompting Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency officials to issue a news release blaming hot temperatures early in the season and saying there should be plenty of bucks for the taking in muzzleloader season. But then the muzzleloader season harvest was also down, and some TWRA officials began to admit that EHD might have played a bigger role than originally anticipated.

But then there was the opening weekend of gun season. In the two-day period ending yesterday, hunters across the state harvested 16,447 deer, according to data released by TWRA. That's up some 25% over last year's opening weekend harvest total of 12,259 . . . an increase of the same amount that the earlier season harvest totals trailed last year's harvest totals by.

In the year-to-date beginning with mid-September quota hunts, Tennessee hunters have harvested a total of 68,982 deer, some 24% where we were this time a year ago, when hunters had harvested 90,824 deer.

In muzzleloader season, hunters harvested 26,395 deer, roughly 25% down from last year's 32,534 total.

So what was the reason for the turn-around in the gun opener? Did hunters start getting desperate and killing the first deer that walked into their sights? Apparently not, according to the same TWRA data.

Of the deer the agency's biologists checked at big game checking stations across the state this weekend, 46.26% of antlered bucks harvested were yearling bucks, while 38.03% were 2.5-year-old bucks and 15.71% were mature bucks. Last year on opening weekend, 49.12% of the antlered bucks checked were yearlings, while 36.9% were 2.5-year-old deer and 13.98% were mature deer.

Before we get too optimistic in thinking that whatever was causing the declined harvest earlier in the season has righted itself, it's important to note that this year's opening weekend gun harvest is in line with the 2005 opening weekend gun harvest. The 2006 opening weekend harvest was an anomoly of sorts, a substantial drop from the previous year.