2023 New Hampshire Wildlife Harvest Summary Now Available

CONTACT:
Dan Bergeron: (603) 271-2461
Andy Timmins: (603) 271-3211
May 7, 2024

Concord, NH – The 2023 New Hampshire Wildlife Harvest Summary is now available. The publication presents final data on the 2023 New Hampshire hunting seasons as summarized by New Hampshire Fish and Game Department wildlife biologists. This annual publication provides a complete analysis of hunting season statistics, including information organized by town and by Wildlife Management Unit (WMU).

The 2023 NH Wildlife Harvest Summary is now available online at https://www.wildlife.nh.gov/hunting-nh/hunting-reports-harvest-summaries. A limited number of printed copies will be available in late May at New Hampshire Fish and Game Department headquarters in Concord and at regional Fish and Game offices in Durham, New Hampton, Lancaster, and Keene.

New Hampshire’s 2023 deer season resulted in harvest of 13,136 cervids, and was the fifth highest in state history since 1922. Similarly, the adult (antlered) buck harvest of 8,295 was the second highest documented in the state during that same time period. Archers took 4,062 deer, the youth weekend accounted for 249 animals, and muzzleloader and regular firearm hunters took 1,871 and 6,954 deer, respectively.

The Harvest Summary includes data from the NH Trophy Deer Program, run by the NH Antler and Skull Trophy Club, which annually recognizes hunters who harvest deer weighing 200 pounds or more, and taken by the three hunting methods: archery, muzzleloader, and regular firearms. The largest deer harvested in 2023, weighing 248 pounds, was taken by Lloyd Gifford, Sr. of Rochester, NH, using a crossbow. His harvest ranked among the top ten heaviest deer ever taken in the Granite State using archery equipment.

The 2023 bear take, totaling 712 bruins, was lower compared with previous years and representative of an average harvest usually associated with years of greater food abundance. The spring of 2023’s turkey harvest totaled 5,580 birds and was a slight decrease of 2.5% from the record harvest in 2022. The fall turkey harvest of 201birds (archery and shotgun combined) represented a low fall harvest. The reduction in harvest was likely the result of poor reproduction in the spring and abundant fall mast crops during 2023. Above average rainfall during spring and summer negatively affected nesting success. More abundant fall mast, namely beechnuts, kept turkeys deeper in the woods, which decreased their vulnerability to harvest. The 2023 NH Wildlife Harvest Summary also provides statistics for moose and furbearers.

Wildlife research and management activities in New Hampshire, including production of the annual NH Wildlife Harvest Summary, are funded through Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration, a user-pay, user-benefit program supported by the purchase of firearms, ammunition, and archery equipment.

Learn more about hunting in New Hampshire at www.huntnh.com/hunting.