The Pennsylvania Game Commission reported on Monday that hunters harvested an estimated 308,920 deer in the state’s 2009-10 hunting seasons, which is an 8 percent decline from the 335,850 deer harvested in 2008-09.

The kill was Pennsylvania’s lowest in 23 years, dating back to 1986-87’s estimated harvest of 300,014.

Hunters took 108,330 antlered deer in 2009-10, down 11 percent from the previous license year’s harvest of 122,410, but similar to the 2007-08 harvest of 109,200. Last season’s buck kill represents a 47 percent decline from the record-high buck kill of 203,247 posted in 2001-02, the last season before the state’s controversial antler restrictions went into effect.

Also, hunters harvested 200,590 antlerless deer in 2009-10, a 6 percent decline from the 213,440 antlerless deer taken in 2008-09. The 2007-08 antlerless deer harvest was 213,870.

For comparison, here are Pennsylvania’s estimated deer harvests for the past 10 seasons:

2009-10: 308,920

2008-09: 335,850

2007-08: 323,070

2006-07: 361,560

2005-06: 354,390

2004-05: 409,320

2003-04: 464,890

2002-03: 517,529

2001-02: 486,014

2000-01: 504,600

Bureau of Wildlife Management personnel currently are working to develop 2010 antlerless deer license allocation recommendations for the commission’s April board meeting. Calvin W. DuBrock, Game Commission Bureau of Wildlife Management director, said that in addition to harvest data, the staff will be looking at population trends, deer reproduction, forest regeneration, and deer-human conflict for each Wildlife Management Unit (WMU).

Harvest estimates for 2009-10 seasons are based on 105,192 usable harvest report cards (41,251 antlered; 63,941 antlerless) returned by hunters to the commission, which included 64,945 reported by mail and 40,247 reported by the new online harvest reporting system. Reporting rates are determined by cross-referencing these report cards with the data collected from the 24,839 deer (7,942 antlered; 16,897 antlerless) examined by Game Commission personnel in the field and at processors.

Yearling bucks comprised 49 percent of the 2009-10 antlered harvest. Since 2003, the percent of yearling bucks in the annual harvest has varied between 49 and 56 percent. Button bucks represented 22 percent of the antlerless harvest, which is the same percentage from the 2008-09 harvest.

The 2009-10 hunting seasons marked the first time crossbows were legal in statewide archery deer seasons for all hunters. In those 19 WMUs outside of the three urban areas, the archery harvest increased 13 percent. The proportion of the archery harvest taken by crossbows in the 19 WMUs increased from 15 percent to 30 percent. Crossbows have been legal in WMUs 2B, 5C and 5D since 2004.

“Although we do not use season-specific harvest data for management purposes, we recognize the public is interested in these harvest estimates,” said DuBrock. “For that reason only, we provide estimated deer harvest breakdowns for firearms, archery and muzzleloader seasons, but we only use total deer harvest estimates when making recommendations for each WMU.”

Check out the final harvest statistics below to see how hunters in various parts of the state fared last year, with 2008-09 figures in parentheses:

WMU 1A: 5,500 (5,400) antlered, 10,700 (12,600) antlerless;

WMU 1B: 5,100 (7,500) antlered, 9,500 (13,400) antlerless;

WMU 2A: 6,800 (6,700) antlered, 13,900 (15,300) antlerless;

WMU 2B: 4,300 (4,000) antlered, 20,000 (15,300) antlerless;

WMU 2C: 6,500 (7,500) antlered, 10,900 (12,800) antlerless;

WMU 2D: 10,000 (9,500) antlered, 16,000 (15,600) antlerless;

WMU 2E: 3,700 (5,000) antlered 5,300 (6,200) antlerless;

WMU 2F: 5,200 (7,000) antlered, 6,600 (9,100) antlerless;

WMU 2G: 5,200 (6,800) antlered, 4,200 (6,500) antlerless;

WMU 3A: 3,300 (4,100) antlered, 6,000 (7,500) antlerless;

WMU 3B: 4,900 (5,500) antlered, 9,100 (9,900) antlerless;

WMU 3C: 6,200 (6,300) antlered, 7,100 (7,300) antlerless;

WMU 3D: 3,100 (3,900) antlered, 6,300 (6,700) antlerless;

WMU 4A: 3,700 (4,200) antlered, 7,400 (6,900) antlerless;

WMU 4B: 4,000 (3,900) antlered, 4,100 (3,800) antlerless;

WMU 4C: 4,700 (5,000) antlered, 7,200 (8,000) antlerless;

WMU 4D: 5,000 (6,600) antlered, 7,200 (9,300) antlerless;

WMU 4E: 4,100 (4,300) antlered, 6,300 (7,200) antlerless;

WMU 5A: 2,200 (2,100) antlered, 4,200 (3,800) antlerless;

WMU 5B: 6,000 (6,800) antlered, 11,300 (11,200) antlerless;

WMU 5C: 7,600 (8,700) antlered, 23,200 (20,200) antlerless;

WMU 5D: 1,100 (1,300) antlered, 3,900 (4,500) antlerless; and

Unknown WMU: 130 (310) antlered, 190 (140) antlerless.

Smaller harvests are exactly what the Game Commission envisioned when it increased antlerless tag allocations and lengthened the doe season early last decade, but they don't win any favor among hunters. While part of the commission's task is to manage deer for all Pennsylvanians, it must remember that hunters are the ones picking up the tab. And there are a lot of hunters who are pretty discouraged right now with the state of the deer herd, especially considering that hunters routinely killed half a million deer not long ago.

The commission has plenty of scientific reasons behind its current deer management policies, such as forest regeneration, better buck to doe ratios, a higher age class of bucks, and so on. But all of that science ignores the one number that matters most: the number of hunters in the woods. The number of hunters has dropped 14 percent in the last 10 years, and unless the commission really listens to how dissatisfied hunters are with its deer plan, more and more hunters will ultimately stop hunting.