Despite bouts of extreme weather the harvest during Kentucky’s 2024 white-tailed deer season reached a five year high, and was the second-highest harvest on record.
The 136-day 2024 season ended on Martin Luther King Day, January 20, 2025.
There were 12 days in September in the 80s or 90s as bow hunting was getting underway. The warm weather continued in October during the youth firearms weekend. There was statewide rains on opening weekend of modern gun season in November and some rainy days in December during the late muzzleloader season.
The arctic cold and snow pack across central Kentucky in January was extreme, but the deer harvest for the month was 3,892, the highest total for a January ever.
“Periods of cold weather require more energy to stay warm at baseline, so deer (are) forced to move around and hit high energy food sources like corn piles and food plots,” said Joe R. McDermott, deer program coordinator for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR). “Also, if you stop and think about it, snow is relatively rare for Kentucky during deer season. We certainly don’t get multiple weeks of nasty cold weather in a row very often. I think hunters saw it as a unique opportunity to deer hunt and track in the snow.”
Season highlights
Here are some highlights, based on the harvest statistics posted on the (KDFWR) website:
• There were 149,900 deer reported taken, which is 8,835 more than last year, representing about a 5.90 percent increase.
• The total harvest was 57.43 percent male deer and 42.57 percent female. Of the bucks harvested, 78,581 had visible antlers.
• Harvest by weapon type for the 2024 season was: archery, 16,670; firearms, 107,398; muzzleloader, 11,794, and crossbow, 14,038.
One harvest statistic that stands out is the number of deer taken with crossbows.
The deer harvest with crossbows has increased steadily in the last 10 seasons, trending in a range from a low of 3,988 in 2016, to a high of 14,038 in 2024. The lengthening of the season and other liberalizations five seasons ago are responsible for the big harvest increase in recent years.
“We have an aging (population) of hunters and crossbows are incredibly easy and efficient tools to use. They are also becoming more affordable with more options,” said McDermott.
Harvest trends
During the past five seasons the deer harvest has been trending in a range between a high of 149,900 in 2024, to a low of 132,327 in 2021.
The record harvest in Kentucky occurred in 2015, when hunters reported taking 155,724 deer.
According to the 2023-24 deer harvest and population report Kentucky’s statewide population estimate shows a stable to increasing trend, just shy of one million, but biologist advise that “this population estimate, generated from harvest and age structure data collected through tele-check reporting and KDFWR staff, is extremely conservative.”
McDermott said deer populations are on the rise in a lot of places throughout Kentucky. “In the southeastern portion of the state, we are actively protecting female deer and trying to grow the population in the Zone 3-4 (counties).”
“If I had to choose an area to focus on, it would be the Green River Region, (in) Hardin, Breckinridge, Grayson, and Hart counties (which border) one another and were four of the top five harvest counties in the state this season. Numbers there are on the rise,” said McDermott.
Deer harvest by wildlife regions and counties
Kentucky is divided into five wildlife regions.
The top region in 2024 was the Green River wildlife region, where 43,371 deer were reported taken in 26 counties.
In the Bluegrass wildlife region, which includes 32 counties from Boone County southward, the deer harvest was 40,095. The top county in the region was Shelby County, with 2,728 deer reported taken.
Three top deer harvest counties in northern Kentucky were: Pendleton, 2,399; Grant, 1,554, and Boone 1,308.
The deer harvest in the other three wildlife regions was:
• Northeast region, 18,187.
• Southeast region, 24,400.
• Purchase region, 20,827.
Statewide, the top 10 counties in deer harvest were:
1. Hardin (Zone 1), 3,228
2. Christian (Zone 1), 3,092
3. Breckinridge (Zone 2), 2,916
4. Grayson (Zone 2), 2,834
5. Hart (Zone 1), 2,816
6. Nelson (Zone 1), 2,796
7. Shelby (Zone 1), 2,728
8. Crittenden (Zone 1), 2,611
9. Hopkins (Zone 1), 2,563
10. Graves (Zone 1), 2,495
Overall there were 43 counties with a deer harvest of more than 1,000, 19 counties with a harvest of more than 2,000 and two counties with a harvest of more than 3,000.
Zone 1 counties have the highest deer densities in the state, above management goals. In the Zone 1 counties there’s an unlimited bag limit on antlerless deer, provided hunters have obtained the required permits. For the 2024 season there were 44 Zone 1 counties.
Fayette County had the lowest harvest in the state, 224 deer.
McDermott said there are quite a few changes to Kentucky’s deer hunting structure being proposed.
These proposed changes will be discussed at future meetings of the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission.
For information about the Commission, visit fw.ky.gov.
