Low Deer Harvest/High Acorn Crop 05 Deer Season

The following is an article published in the Tennessean on Thursday, January 26, 2006. It was written by Charles Searcy.

No records, but deer are still plentiful

Daryl Ratajczak, head of the Tennessee Wildlife Agency's deer program, says the days of record harvests on a yearly basis are over.

"But that's where we want to be," he said this week.

Deer season is over. At the last count, the state's hunters had taken 165,870, which could go up or down slightly because of duplicated tags.

And the top three counties a year ago are the top three counties again - although they switched places.

Hardeman became the leader in 2005-2006 with a corrected total of 5,981, down 4.49 percent from a year ago.

Giles County moved to second with 5,176 and Henry County, the county that holds the state record with 6,379 a year ago dropped down to 5,084, down 20 percent.

"It wasn't a good year for hunters," Ratajczk said. "All across the state the acorns were plentiful. ... The deer didn't have to move far to get food and that cut down on the hunter's chances."

Ratacjczk also said he expects the harvest records of the future would run between 160,000 and 180,000.

"That's where we want to be," he said.