New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

New Hampshire deer hunters fared very well during the 2024 deer hunting season despite a very warm and mostly snow-less deer season over much of the state still produced a very robust deer take of 12,232 based on the preliminary results. There have been few deer seasons over the last number of decades that such a warm and near drought conditions with even noisy dry leaves challenged hunters stalking abilities. Yes, some days just seemed too hot to deer hunt, unlike the typical frosty and often snowy November conditions of the past. 

 

Deer hunters took a total of 12,232 deer based on preliminary data available to Fish and Game deer biologist Becky Fuda. She reports that these numbers are based on primary the calls the conservation officers placed to registration stations at the end of the archery deer season that ended on December 15th, plus deer registered online by the hunters themselves. Becky expects to get the season data with particulars such as sex of deer, actual towns of kills and similar specific information is entered into the system for tabulating. Final numbers may vary a bit, but the total deer kill will not change much based on past experience. 

 

The 2024 take of 12,232 is down seven percent from 13,136 taken in 2023. While county figures are likely the most likely to change as the final data will have town specific kill information, for the most part, based on years of data collection, the preliminary data is a pretty good reflection of the season results. 

 

There is considerable variation in the county numbers compared to the overall take be very similar to the 2023 season. For instance, Belknap County with a take of 978 showed a 33 percent increase from the 736 reported in 2023. Versus Strafford County with a reported take of 772 which was 31 percent below the 1,125 reported in 2023. Seven of our ten counties varied less than ten percent compared to 2023 with Sullivan County tallying a 17 percent decline from 2023 with 781 deer taken in 2024 compared to 1,125 taken in 2023.  

 

Despite the challenges this year's deer season produced a very robust deer kill. Looking back over eighty years to 1960 only once was there a deer take of over 12,000 deer until this century. Since 2000 a take of 12,000 deer taken or more each year has occurred eleven times with eight of the eleven times within the last ten years. There are now more deer in New Hampshire than likely ever before. The Granite state's deer population is flourishing, and hunters are reaping the benefits of a robust deer population with freezers full of wild organic protein heading into winter.