Deer harvest up in Rappahannock County

Almost 11 percent more deer bagged this year

Hunters in Rappahannock County during the 2019–20 deer hunting season that ended January 4th bagged 1,870 deer — the highest number since 2013.

This season’s deer harvest was an increase of nearly 11 percent over last year’s total of 1,688. The 2019-20 hunt included 773 antlered bucks and 976 does, the remainder being button bucks or bucks that had shed antlers.

The most deer ever bagged in Rappahannock County was 2,414 in 2008.

Comparably, fifty years ago in 1970, there were 207 deer taken by hunters in the county.

Whereas annual deer harvest totals by individual Virginia counties date to 1947, here in Rappahannock there were no deer reported hunted for five straight years — until the 1952 season, when a total of one deer was shot. By 1953, 8 deer were legally harvested, down to 4 deer in 1954.

In all of Virginia, 206,976 deer were harvested this season of 2019-20— 99,994 of them antlered bucks — up 9 percent from the 190,636 deer taken last year, according to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (DGIF).

According to Deer Project Leader Matt Knox, this season’s increase is partly attributable to the weather being favorable compared to the previous year. Also, acorn crops were poor or spotty in many areas this year, likely making deer more visible to hunters as they moved widely in search of food.

The youth and apprentice deer hunting weekend in the state resulted in a harvest of 2,067 deer. The archery season harvest was 30,185 deer or 15 percent of the total. Muzzleloading deer hunters took 54,112 deer or 26 percent. Firearms deer season (rifles, shotguns, and pistols) resulted in a deer harvest of 122,570 deer or 59 percent of the total. Approximately 178,670 deer (86 percent) were checked using the DGIF’s electronic checking system through the Go Outdoors Virginia portal.

Meanwhile, Virginia hunters had a record harvest of 3,540 bears during the 2019–20 bear hunting season, according to DGIF. Bagged bears increased 30 percent from 2018-19— and this just-concluded 2019-20 season was 38 percent higher than the previous 5-year average.

As for Rappahannock County’s specific bear harvest total in 2019-20, DGIF says it has not yet compiled exact statistics. Last year, 19 bears were shot in the county.

Statewide, there was a slight increase in female bears killed during the 2019–2020 season. The 3-day early firearms season, archery, muzzleloader and firearms harvests increased over the previous year by 1 percent, 13 percent, 60 percent and 51 percent, respectively.

This year’s record bear harvest is likely due to multiple factors, according to DGIF, including an increased number of hunters who could take bears and significant regulation changes to increase bear hunting opportunities in eastern and southwestern Virginia. The firearms season was also expanded to achieve black bear population objectives and address human-bear conflicts.

In addition, the number of licensed hunters who could take a bear increased from 52,084 during the 2018–2019 season to 66,590 during the 2019–2020 season. The majority of those hunters purchased the Sportsman’s Hunting and Fishing license this season.

Virginia continues to attract non-resident bear hunters. Successful non-resident hunters this year came from 30 states and accounted for 8 percent of the total reported harvest.

The 2019–20 season was the first opportunity for hunters to check bears through the DGIF electronic checking system using their smartphones, internet, or mobile app. Electronic checking accounted for 58 percent of harvested bears reported during the season. As in previous years, hunters were also able to check bears at bear check stations.

DGIF says it will take a few more years to determine the ultimate bear population impact of recent firearms season expansions as well as the 3-day early firearms season because of yearto-year variation in hunter success and environmental factors.