Skip to main content
NEWS

U.S. Hunters Killing More Mature Bucks Than Yearling Bucks

U.S. Hunters Killing More Mature Bucks Than Yearling Bucks

 

The Quality Deer Management Association reports U.S. whitetail hunters are taking more mature bucks than 1½-year-old or “yearling” bucks for the first time in modern history.

In the 2014-15 hunting season, the percentage of yearling bucks in the national buck harvest dropped to a new record low of 33 percent, falling below the harvest rate for 3½-year-old and older bucks – 34 percent – for the first time since whitetail populations were restored in the mid-1900s.

Of the 26 whitetail states that collect age data on older bucks, the top state in harvest of mature bucks for the 2014-15 season was Mississippi, where 74 percent of bucks killed were 3½ years old or older. Rounding out the Top-5 were Arkansas and Louisiana at 67 percent, Texas at 62 percent, and Oklahoma at 60 percent.

Not surprisingly, these same states achieved some of the lowest rates of yearling-buck harvest in the nation. In fact, for the third year in a row, Arkansas claimed the lowest rate at only 8 percent.

Read the QDMA report.