Well, it's "official", the NY deer harvest is DOWN substantially (the capitol letters are for you NY Bowhunter ). My local paper had the following information:

nearly 50,000 less deer taken (however, the total of 253,000 was still above the 10 year average)

Broome Co. - down ~750
Chernango Co. - down 650
Tioga Co. - down 580
Cortland Co. - down ~400
Otsego Co. - down 1400!
Delaware Co. - down 2100!!
Steuben Co. - down 5500!!!

WOW - i guess there are no deer in NY or there are going to over run us next year ??

Our discussions before focused on the number of deer tags and how it will hurt hunting by harvesting too many deer. So how should we take this info - 1) it has not hurt the hunting because the deer take is down (more tags does not mean more deer taken) or 2) the increase in tags and subsequent deer take (308,000 in 2002) hurt last hyears harvest becuase less deer were around??? I think the guys who were in the discussion before know where I stand (the increased tags has not hurt the hunting).
Here's some more numbers to chew on -
2001 harvest was DOWN (280,000) from 2000 (295,000) and those years were before the extra tags
doe permits issued were down 90,000 last year - therefore less doe could be taken (the lower doe tags was a result of the high take the year before)
the total of 253,000 in 2003 is still above the 10 year average

well, let's see what kind of discussion we can get into over these numbers and try to decide what is happening with the population (i still think there are plenty of deer in NY)

for the entire article go to (also some info on rifle in the southern tier and blaze orange:

http://www.pressconnects.com/today/s...04s72007.shtml



Figures released Monday showed the 'calculated' 2003 deer harvest at 253,000 -- well above the previous 10-year average of 239,000. The total included more than 107,000 bucks and nearly 146,000 antlerless deer. The DEC anticipated a modest decline in the total deer take due to high kills in previous years and a drastic reduction in antlerless permits last season.

Nearly 308,000 deer were taken in 2002, including a record 128,000 bucks. But the high kill figures convinced biologists to reduce the number of antlerless permits by 90,000 last year, down to 684,000.

Figures in Broome County showed 4,877 deer (1,827 bucks), down from 5,614 in 2002 with 2,220 bucks. Chenango County showed a drop of more than 300 bucks and 650 deer overall while Delaware's kill of 8,933 in 2002 dropped to 5,700 last season. The Delaware buck kill dropped from 4,518 to 2,617 last year.

Tioga County's figures dropped by more than 580 deer, and 250 bucks while Cortland County dropped less than 400 deer and less than 100 bucks. Otsego figures showed a drop of 1,400 deer and about 700 bucks.

Steuben County had the highest deer take in 2003, with 17,768 deer, down from 23,200 in 2002.

The Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP) which offers site-specific relief for farmers and others suffering from deer damage, accounted for 12,000 deer killed in 2003.