New Hampshire hunters had a very good 2022.

According to the annual tally from New Hampshire Fish and Game, hunters killed more antlered white-tail deer in 2022 than any hunting season since the state began keeping records in 1922. Hunters using firearms, muzzle-loaders and bows killed 14,082 deer, including 8,339 bucks with antlers.

The deer harvest by hunters has risen steadily since a low point in 1983, when fewer than 4,000 deer were killed. This is a function of the expanding deer population and changes to hunting season, since the number of hunting licenses sold each year has actually declined since then, although it stabilized during the pandemic.

Bear hunters were also very successful in 2022, killing 1,156 animals, a 30% increase over the 2021 harvest and the second highest total in history.

Further, the spring 2022 turkey harvest of 5,725 birds was the highest on record, while the fall turkey harvest of 805 represented a 4% increase over 2021 and one of the highest ever.

Hunting success rates each year can be highly variable depending on the weather and on factors such as the availability of wild food sources.

The entire Wildlife Harvest Summary can be seen online at https://wildlife.state.nh.us/hunting/documents/2022-harvest-summary.pdf.

— Concord Monitor

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