South Carolina 2021 Deer Harvest Numbers. How do your harvest #s look?

[philos]

SC DNR reported 174,569 deer taken in 2021 overall. This represents a 12% decline in the prior years harvest. Also they reported a 13% decline in hunters in SC.

16,2989 coyotes and 27,964 wild hogs also reported killed in 2021.

The actual numbers are certainly higher than the reported data.

For for those whitetail only states-what do your numbers look like?

 

[quackaddict]

If they don't make harvest reporting madatory(which is stupid that they haven't, since the technology is there), then I'm always skeptical of those kinds of numbers.

I bet if they would stop allowing farmers to kill all they want over the summer, our numbers wouldn't be "trending downwards".

 

[KHNC]

Correct! ^^ they started e-reporting of turkeys, why not deer? Just selling tags and using surveys isnt accurate enough. I killed 2 bucks and 3 does in SC last year. Never was asked how many I killed.

 

[MallardSX2]

GA has one of the best apps I have ever seen. You know how many deer were killed, what county, what type of deer almost immediately. Its great. I have NO CLUE why all 50 states don't use the app they are using. Its great. I can check my deer before I even get down out of my treestand. And normally I do because its the only place I have service (Not that you even need service to do it)

 

[wind gypsy]

Agree that any state that doesn't have mandatory big game harvest reporting is dropping the ball. Inexcusable IMO.

I'm not a big fan of how my home state of MN manages seasons compared to our neighboring states and our various big game draw systems are a joke, but it's been mandatory to register harvested deer since long before i was born and it's never felt like a burden.

MN harvest # fluctuation is primarily impacted by how aggressively the DNR is about shooting the piss out of the herd. First decade of 2000's they started giving out a lot of doe tags and the herd got piss pounded until hunters became unhappy with populations and pushed for change in the early 20-teens. Deer got a little more protection for a while and now we're getting close to the days of hammering the herd again in much of the state, some areas being justified with CWD zones.

 

[KHNC]

For years and years, SC didnt even have tags or a big game checking station. Each zone had its own limits and one zone you could kill a BUCK per day! They finally slowed down the slaughter a little and went to a tagging system and statewide buck limit of 4 for NR's , 5 for residents. Processors are supposedly required to record the tag info of any deer brought in as well.

 

[vthokee]

This is my second year hunting SC and I am blown away by the number of tags they give out and like mentioned how little reporting is made mandatory. I also believe opening the season Aug 15th for firearms is part of the issue. I don’t think the deer herd is as stable to support hunting from Aug till January. Hunted over 30 days last year and never even saw a deer.

 

[Sccritterkiller]

This is my second year hunting SC and I am blown away by the number of tags they give out and like mentioned how little reporting is made mandatory. I also believe opening the season Aug 15th for firearms is part of the issue. I don’t think the deer herd is as stable to support hunting from Aug till January. Hunted over 30 days last year and never even saw a deer.

I just came from hunting the opener...typically saw 30-40 deer a sit..Keep in mind the 1st 3 weeks? of season its bucks only in zone 3, zone 4 has a achery opener only same date. Zones 1 and 2 rifle doesn't open till middle of Oct. On the private ground in zone 3 there is a ridiculous amount of deer. Public land can't compete with 300-400 acres of peanuts...

Like someone else said I don't believe those numbers filled all my tags and nobody asked me.

 

[Sccritterkiller]

For years and years, SC didnt even have tags or a big game checking station. Each zone had its own limits and one zone you could kill a BUCK per day! They finally slowed down the slaughter a little and went to a tagging system and statewide buck limit of 4 for NR's , 5 for residents. Processors are supposedly required to record the tag info of any deer brought in as well.

Do you know if DNR pull the tag info from the processors and include it in havest numbers?

That was Zone 3 with a Buck a day limit...I remember those days.

 

[FLS]

I was in a lease with 4 other members in one of the highest deer densities in SC We were enrolled in the ADQP program and had to report everything we killed to the SCDNR at the end of the year to enroll in the program next season. All the clubs around us did the same. We got 50 antlerless tags a year and usually killed 30-40 does and about 10 bucks. Did that for 10 years and didn’t make a dent. The deer herd in most of SC is doing fine. The population boom of the 90s and early 2000s has passed and things are probably closer to normal now. I travel around the state for work and see deer where I’ve always seen them. Development is the biggest danger to our deer herd.

 

[vthokee]

Man I guess I’m looking in the wrong areas for deer. I have my fair share of deer kills from east coast all the way to NM. I was hunting the Francis Marion last year. I guess I need to broaden my hunt areas.

 

[FLS]

FM is tough but there are plenty of deer in there. Find an over cup oak or swamp chestnut that’s dropping next to a cane thicket and you’ll find deer. If you have to cross water to get there even better. I know a few guys that consistently kill deer in there. You’ll have less pressure during archery and primitive weapons hunts.
I killed 3 deer and a hog on SC WMAs last season. Two deer with a bow, and a deer and a hog with a muzzleloader. Two more on private With a rifle. Once you figure out where to look they aren’t too hard to kill.

 

[Brunson84]

Man I guess I’m looking in the wrong areas for deer. I have my fair share of deer kills from east coast all the way to NM. I was hunting the Francis Marion last year. I guess I need to broaden my hunt areas.

Francis Marion is where every local and there mama go to dog hunt, cut the block and have sodas at night lol, that’s where all the pressure comes from, along with pine tree farming national forest there isn’t much to eat. Try the units NW of Charleston, around the upper and lower lakes and on up, the deer are there, plenty hit on the side of the highway starting toward the end of September and on through November.


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[BachelorJack]

I live in SC.

My family did not report any deer taken last year because it was not mandatory.

So add 30 or so to those numbers

 

[Mike Islander]

Seen more deer this year than ever before. Almost all fawns are twins, and even saw one set of triplets. 2 eight points already killed on our little club, about 160 pounds each, which is decent for our sea island deer (I haven't gone yet). Very pumped.

 

[Sccritterkiller]

Man I guess I’m looking in the wrong areas for deer. I have my fair share of deer kills from east coast all the way to NM. I was hunting the Francis Marion last year. I guess I need to broaden my hunt areas.

SCDNR just set a public meeting to seek input on FM management plan due to hunter complaints for last serveral years of low deer numbers and poor quality hunting. The meeting will be held Sept. 8 at 6:30 p.m. in the Santee Cooper auditorium, at 1 Riverwood Drive in Moncks Corner.

Appears so.....

 

[Mike Islander]

SCDNR just set a public meeting to seek input on FM management plan due to hunter complaints for last serveral years of low deer numbers and poor quality hunting. The meeting will be held Sept. 8 at 6:30 p.m. in the Santee Cooper auditorium, at 1 Riverwood Drive in Moncks Corner.

Appears so.....

Interesting. I spend a couple hundred hours in the FM each year since 2013 or so. Never see a lot of deer. However, I've seen a ton of turkeys this year, way more than usual. Based on that, I'm guessing the deer will improve a lot in the next couple of years.

 

[Brunson84]

Turkeys have definitely made a comeback around berkeley county, seen a flock on the side of hwy 52 today. They could be getting pushed out of forests cleared for neighborhoods though.


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[KHNC]

Do you know if DNR pull the tag info from the processors and include it in havest numbers?

That was Zone 3 with a Buck a day limit...I remember those days.

I would certainly think so! They are supposed to keep a log book of tags with EVERY deer processed in the state. That would make sense.

 

[Sccritterkiller]

I would certainly think so! They are supposed to keep a log book of tags with EVERY deer processed in the state. That would make sense.

Just because it makes sense doesn't mean the Government is doing it...I thought the log book was more to keep them in compliance so they keep processing license.