North Carolina’s 2016 deer preview

North Carolina’s deer herd appears stable, with big gains in the mountains, but what does the future hold, especially with coyotes on the scene?

The 2015 statewide harvest of 162,588 whitetail deer was the eighth-highest in North Carolina history, and that should be good news for this fall’s season.

“The harvest seems to be holding fairly steady, except for some circumstances when the herd can be affected by a variety of events,” said Jonathan Shaw, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s supervising deer biologist. “I don’t know whether or not it will go higher or lower. If we continue to harvest deer at same rate and put (more) coyotes on the landscape, (that) may start to show up (negatively).”

North Carolina’s deer harvest the past six years has bounced between 153,629 and 188,130, the latter being the record harvest from 2013. If a significant decline occurs — in the absence of other factors — the Commission may have to look harder at coyote predation.

That said, if 2016 mimics 2015, hunters should fare well when it comes to big bucks. The big-buck contest at the Dixie Deer Classic this past March was full of trophies measuring 150 inches or better, coming from many different parts of the state.

Last season’s harvest was up from the low 2014 levels, but hunting success was mixed across North Carolina. The harvest along the coast was down, especially in northeastern North Carolina, while the rest of eastern North Carolina had good harvests in 2015, especially the deer-rich counties of the “peanut belt” along the Roanoke River — Halifax, Northampton, Bertie, Warren, Vance, Edgecombe, Franklin and Nash — had good harvests.

As usual, Northampton and Halifax led all counties with harvests of 4,499 and 4,151 deer, respectively.

Shaw wasn’t too surprised at the good harvest numbers from that area because he believes the local herd might have recovered from a recent outbreak of epizootic hemmorrhagic disease that sent numbers tumbling in past seasons.

North Carolina’s Piedmont continues to be a top producer, particularly the “trophy belt” counties that border Virginia. Most of the true trophy deer taken in recent seasons have come from the middle of the state.

Last season, northern Piedmont hunters tagged 24,327 whitetails, the second-highest total in the state, followed by the southern Piedmont’s 23,320 and northwest North Carolina’s 21,787. The 16-percent increase over 2014 levels matched the increase in the peanut belt counties.

The western North Carolina mountains, including the northwestern corner of the state, had the biggest percentage increases in the harvest over 2014.

Shaw said the western part of the state is changing as more people move there, land is cleared and edge cover expands to provide food and shelter for whitetails.

“The mountains have an emerging deer herd,” Shaw said. “Today more private land is being developed, causing good changes in habitat for deer,” he said. “There are lots more edges and early successional habitat in the mountains, especially at private lands. Deer numbers are really taking off at private property.”

In 2015, the harvest in foothills counties increased 9.2 percent, while counties in the region west of Asheville boasted an increase of 33 percent.

While western harvest totals aren’t impressive compared to the Piedmont and coastal regions, the number of mountain counties that set harvest records in 2015 backed up Shaw’s observation.

Yancey County led the way as hunters tagged 1,131 deer, its highest level since the Commission started tracking county-by-county harvests in 1976. Ten other mountain counties also had record harvests: Madison (1,082), Mitchell (1,030), Macon (714), Buncombe (611), Cherokee (548), Clay (288), Transylvania (266), Henderson (391), Haywood (217) and Swain (163).

The Commission also tracks which counties have the best harvests in terms of their area — known as harvest per square mile. In those terms, hunters in Mecklenburg, Alleghany and Vance counties had the best seasons, taking 4.93, 4.75 and 4.69 antlered bucks per square mile last season.

Hunter success using different weapons varied from county to county. Hunters at three northwestern counties took the most deer during blackpowder season:  Stokes (700), Ashe (681) and Wilkes (628). Wake, Guilford and Chatham counties led in archery harvest with 463, 311 and 306 deer, respectively. Wake County hunters took the most deer on game lands, 280, followed by Montgomery with 266 and Chatham with 262.