It seems almost too good to be true, but it is indeed a fact that North Carolina deer hunters set yet another reported harvest record during the 2007-08 deer-hunting season. The total deer harvest was 171,986 for an astounding and unprecedented increase of 11.5 percent over the previous record, which was set during the 2006-07 deer season.

Back-to-back record-setting seasons would be considered highly unusual, with the state's deer herd thought to have been stabilizing over the past several years.

But last season's harvest record shattered conventional thinking, and was the third year in a row of successive record deer harvests.

NORTH CAROLINA'S TOP TWO COUNTIES IN EACH DISTRICT
COUNTY	HARVEST PER SQUARE MILE
DISTRICT 1
Hertford	8.7
Bertie	8.0
DISTRICT 2
Pender	5.4
Jones	5.3
DISTRICT 3
Northampton	12.2
Vance	10.9
DISTRICT 4
Bladen	4.5
Columbus	4.1
DISTRICT 5
Alarnance	10.1
Caswell	10.0
DISTRICT 6
Rowan	9.9
Anson	8.4
DISTRICT 7
Alleghany	18.9
Davie	9.2
DISTRICT 8
Lincoln	7.0
Catawba	5.0
DISTRICT 9
Polk	4.6
Madison	1.3

In 2001, the total deer harvest was 142,847, setting a record for harvest up until that time (for the years when harvest report records have been kept). Then in 2002, the harvest dipped to 118,174. In 2003, it rebounded to 134,507. In 2004, the harvest was up again to 140,311. Then, in 2005, the deer harvest set a record of 144,315 followed by another record of 154,273 in 2006. That 2006 deer harvest alone was an increase of 7 percent above the previous year. Now, tack on another 11.5 percent for 2007 and it proves that hunting has never been so good.

Evin Stanford is the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission's surveys and research biologist for deer, turkeys and boars. He keeps track of the harvest data and therefore has a better handle on the pulse of the deer herd and deer-hunting effort than anyone else in the state.

"There may be a couple of big reasons and a few smaller ones for the increase in deer harvest," Stanford said. "We had a relatively mild winter and good weather translates into more hunter effort. This is especially true for those counties with the Western and Northwestern deer seasons, where the relatively short firearms seasons can be disrupted by a week of cold winter weather coming along at the wrong time."

The other big reason besides weather for the increase in deer harvest was a change in the commission's either-sex harvest and reporting regulations. For the first time during the 2007 season, hunters in areas that had a maximum length either-sex deer season could use bonus antlerless deer harvest report cards to harvest additional antlerless deer above the regular hunting license total of six deer without having to go through the requirements of the state's Deer Management Assistance Program. The bonus doe harvest report cards applied only to private lands, not to public game lands. Still, even the game land deer harvest was increased by a substantial amount over the previous year.

There was in increase in the deer harvest in every one of the nine state wildlife districts compared with the harvest from the districts last season. During the 2005 season, there were some districts that had a decline in harvest, which were offset by those districts that had a higher harvest. The harvest increase was substantial in all districts except for District 9, which has low deer densities to begin with. However, even District 9 showed a harvest increase.

In District 1, there was an increase in the deer harvest of 18.3 percent above the 2005 deer harvest. In District 2, there was an increase of 14.4 percent. In District 3, there was an increase of 8 percent. In District 4, there was an increase of 12.2 percent. In District 5, there was an increase of 13.1 percent. In District 6, there was an increase of 16.3 percent. In District 7, there was an increase of 6.8 percent. In District 8, there was an increase of 2.9 percent.

In District 9, there was an increase in deer harvest of 2.1 percent.