Number of antlered bucks (1.5 years and older) harvested in the 2015 season:
Texas 290,590
Michigan 191,608
Wisconsin 152,701
Georgia 142,346
Pennsylvania 137,580
Number of does harvested in 2015:
Texas 157,247
Georgia 220,503
Pennsylvania 178,233
Alabama 171,123
Wisconsin 159,034
Source: QDMA Whitetail Report 2017
Thank you for sharing ! This is useful information
I’d say majority of those Michigan bucks are 1.5 years. The state it starting to introduce some antler restrictions in certain areas finally but we are still way off what we could be. Notice how Michigan drops right off top 5 with the does kills. For some reason a lot of Michigan hunters would rather shoot a spike or a fork than a nice fat doe. We have way to many doe in alot of areas and hunters need to understand they need to manage them better.
I would guess that 99% in Texas are killed on private land.
I live in Pennsylvania own a couple farms here and trust me if I did not have my own land to hunt would not buy a tag at all. Once the top state nationwide for deer with the exception of maybe Texas our herds have been mismanaged for 20 years now. We have a 3 point rule in most o the state an that has improved antler size as a rule but deer numbers are depressed. Do not let antler deer kill numbers mislead you 70% of all deer are taken on private land.