It wasn't unexpected, but it is confirmed: Tennessee's deer harvest took a dip in 2007-2008. However, the decrease wasn't as big as it once appeared it could be.

According to preliminary figures available from the Wildlife Resources Agency, Tennessee hunters bagged a total of 164,047 deer in the 2007-2008 deer seasons.

That's down from last year's record harvest of 182,093, but by only 10%. For much of the season, this year's harvest ran below last year's harvest by around 20% consistently.

Some Tennessee wildlife officials had predicted another record harvest this year, with a lack of abundant mast leading to kill totals topping 200,000.

WHAT WE PREDICTED: From Sept. 21, 2007: If the weather cooperates, we expect Tennessee deer hunters to once again draw close to 180,000 total deer harvested. A record harvest would not be surprising, but we don't look for the 200,000 total harvest that some hunters have optimistically anticipated. Likewise, a decreased harvest wouldn't be surprising, but we don't look for a major decrease like we saw in the 2005 season. All-in-all, the 2007 season should be very comparable to the 2006 season. SOURCE: Deer Outlook '07

Of this year's harvest, 158,358 were harvested on statewide hunts (down 9.5% from last year's harvest of 174,937) while 5,482 were harvested on WMA hunts (down 15.2% from last year's harvest of 6,465).

Archery hunters this year harvested 12,712 deer, while crossbow hunters harvested 4,939, muzzleloader hunters harvested 34,199 and firearms hunters harvested 112,192.

Of those numbers, the archery harvest was off the most. This year's total archery harvest (traditional equipment and crossbows combined) was 17,651. That's down 19% from last year's archery harvest of 21,789. Remarkably, this year's archery harvest was the lowest since 1991, when only 15,764 deer were harvested with archery equipment. Much of the reason for that decrease will likely be blamed on record-setting heat and an intense drought that greeted bow hunters early in the season.

Meanwhile, the muzzleloader harvest was down 12.8% from last year's harvest of 39,220. The firearms harvest was down only 1.5% from last year's harvest of 113,928.

A total of 87,671 hunters harvested a deer this year. That's down 9.3% from last year, when 96,569 hunters harvested a deer. Of this year's successful hunters, the majority (50,043, or 57%) harvested one deer. Another 23% (20,275) harvested two deer, while 17,353, or 20%, harvested three or more deer. Some 435 hunters harvested 10 or more deer.

One of the brightest spots to this season was that does made up the one of the largest percentages of the total harvest in Tennessee's history. Of the 164,047 deer harvest, 74,191 were does. That's 45.2%, up from 42.8% in 2006 and second only to the 47.3% of does in the harvest in 1998, when significantly lowered buck limits jolted hunters into harvesting antlerless deer.

The total antlerless harvest this year was 86,468, or 52.7% of the total harvest. That's also one of the largest percentages in history, up from 49.9% last year and the largest total since 1998, when a record 56.3% were antlerless.

And the news just got better when the age classification of the antlered harvest was tallied. Of the antlered bucks harvested by hunters and inspected by TWRA biologists, 48.3% were yearling (1.5-year-old) bucks. That's the lowest number in Tennessee's history, down from 50.5% in 2006 and beating the previous record of 49.4% in 2005.

Another 36.7% of the bucks harvested were 2.5-year-old deer, up slightly from last year's harvest, when 36.2% were 2.5-year-old deer, but lower than the 39.1% of 2.5-year-olds among the antlered harvest in 2005.

A total of 15.05% of the antlered harvest were mature deer, or 3.5-years-old or older. That is also a record, better than the 13.4% in 2006.

All in all, it appears that Tennessee hunters are continuing to buy into the concept of quality deer management. All of the above-referenced figures have slowly but steadily improved over the last five years.

Leading the way in the county-by-county harvest this year was Hardeman County, with 5,740 deer harvested. Other counties harvesting more than 5,000 deer included Giles, at 5,076, and Fayette, at 5,061. Henry County hunters harvested 4,942 deer, while Lincoln County hunters harvested 4,259 deer.

Harvesting more than 3,000 deer were Franklin County, 3,644; Montgomery County, 3,636; Weakley County, 3,560; McNairy County, 3,543; Carroll County, 3,525; Wayne County, 3,470; and Madison County, 3,374.

The bottom of the list included Lake County, at 299 deer harvested; Union County, 279; Washington County, 276; Pickett County, 201; and Polk County, 77.

Among wildlife management areas, Land Between the Lakes led the way in antlered harvest, with 298 bucks harvested. AEDC saw 272 bucks harvested, while 263 were harvested at Chuck Swan. Catoosa had 254 bucks harvested, followed by South Cherokee with 227 and Oak Ridge at 225.

Also harvesting more than 100 bucks were Eagle Creek, at 144, North Cherokee, at 134, and Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge, at 125.

Where were the biggest bucks harvested? It's too early to assess where the best areas were as far as "book deer" being harvested, but among areas with 11-point or larger bucks harvested, Fayette County led the way with 68, followed by Henry County with 67, Montgomery County with 64, Giles and Lincoln counties with 51 each, Stewart County with 48, Dickson County with 46, Hardeman County with 43, Mauri County with 41 and Marshall and Williamson counties with 40 each.