Virginia’s harvest of 240,000 whitetails last year not only represented a 7 percent jump over the 2006 season.

“This was clearly our highest recorded harvest,” said Nelson Lafon, deer project coordinator for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (DGIF), in The News & Advance.  

In fact, the 2007 take was 13 percent above the annual median total for the past decade!

As The News & Advance noted, DGIF has made a concerted effort to push up the doe harvest in recent years, liberalizing seasons and available tags.  “Doe kills also outnumbered those of antlered bucks for the first time since the check system started, Lafon said. There were roughly 500 more killed this past year.”

DGIF has also targeted urban deer populations.

“[C]onflicts with deer in urban areas have risen in recent years, Lafon said. They come to these spots to find sanctuary, he said.  Since 2003, he said nearly 20 cities and towns, including Lynchburg, have taken part in an archery program that allows hunters to target them in urban areas without violating laws that prohibit firearms.  Bow kills climbed 1 percent this past season and crossbow kills, which became legal for all deer hunters three years ago, increased 21 percent.”

— Brian McCombie, deeranddeerhunting.com contributor