North Carolina hunters set a new record for overall deer harvest during the 2005-06 hunting season. The buck harvest did not quite exceed the previous record buck harvest set in 2001-02. But it was not far off. The buck harvest in 2001-02 was 78,805 and last season it was 78,096.

"Last season's record deer harvest was nothing unusual," said North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission deer biologist Evin Stanford. "We've been harvesting a lot of deer. The harvest went down in 2002-03. But ever since, the harvest has been fairly stable."

The antlered-buck harvest was so close to the previous record, it is only a statistical blip on the trend charts. The deer population is stabilizing across the state and the buck harvest is stabilizing along with the overall harvest.

"Our deer population modeling is showing a stable population at the statewide level, but there are some localized areas that have increasing populations," Stanford said. "The Neuse River watershed has an increasing population. In the Western Region, in Nantahala National Forest and the core mountain counties of Cherokee, Graham, Clay, Swain, Macon and Jackson, our modeling shows the population is increasing. But the region still has relatively low deer densities of four to five deer per square mile. Still, the population has nearly doubled since the 1990s from 5,000 deer to around 10,000 deer.

"A lot of it is because of better deer management on private lands. But some of it is because of the management we have in place, including either-sex regulations that only have limited opportunities to harvest antlerless deer. In the Western Region, antlerless deer can only be taken during bow season and on the last day of muzzleloader season."

Areas with expanding deer populations nearly always produce better quality bucks because the habitat is underutilized, meaning there are more high-quality foods available. Therefore, hunters should scout these areas for potential trophy deer.

Regulation changes are another way to manipulate buck-to-doe ratios and the number of bucks in the total population. However, recent and proposed changes to the regulations will achieve mixed results.

Harnett County will go to the maximum either-sex season and maximum length Eastern Region deer season this year. Some of the county was in the Eastern Region and a small part was in the central season last year. The longer Eastern deer season for the county may result in more opportunity for hunters who want to wait for a buck to come along. In the long run, it could result in more bucks being taken along with more total deer. What the overall effect will be in regard to trophy bucks and number of bucks in the herd will be answered only in the future.

Tar Heel hunters continue to show bias toward harvesting antlered bucks. The buck-to-doe harvest is consistent at about 1.3 to 1.5 bucks harvested for each doe harvested. Some hunters would like higher doe harvests and some would like increases or decreases in antlered-buck harvests. On a broad scale, these approaches may or may not result in what has come to be termed in modern times as "quality" deer management.