The final deer harvest numbers for the 2022-23 season are in, and Wayne County made the Top Ten! TWRA says it was a great year, with a record-breaking harvest.
The deer depicted in the graphic is the new state record archery harvest with a net score of 192 6/8. The gross number of inches was 197 5/8.
For the third consecutive season, the deer harvest in Tennessee exceeded the one before it. The 2022-23 season, which ended with a youth hunt on January 22, was 163,154 deer. That was 3,443 more deer than were harvested in 2021-22, and 28,855 more than in 2020-21, when COVID-19 had an impact.
The largest harvest over the last 10 years was in 2015-16 at 178,182. The state’s average over the last six years is 147,923.
A total of 87,938 of the deer taken this past season were antlered males, 67,254 were does and 6,783 were antlerless males.
Counties reporting the largest harvests: Giles (4,291), Lawrence (3,937), Montgomery (3,864), Sumner (3,570), Maury (3,565), Franklin (3,325), Henry (3,220), Wayne (3,218), Lincoln (3,096) and Carroll (3,005).
Montgomery County had the largest deer taken: 121 11-pointers and 382 9-10 pointers. Sumner County had 105 11-pointers and 390 9-10 pointers. Montgomery also had the largest deer taken in 2021-22, with 416 which were at least 9-pointers.