Nebraska's rising deer permit sales accompanied a falling mule deer harvest, with the state citing its own higher antlerless take as one cause

IPermits and Take

Nebraska's deer permit sales climbed while its mule deer harvest shrank

For 2025 NGPC called for "continuing reduced MD permit quotas" along with retaining the cap of one buck-eligible unit permit within every western unit. The ban against taking antlerless mule deer on publicly accessible property stayed in place with an exception for Open Fields and Waters land. Before applying look up the regulations that were actually adopted.

The tabulated figures draw on recommendation volumes from NGPC and Nebraska's Big Game Guides. Deer permit purchases hit their high of 139,214 during 2020 before dropping to 113,704 during 2024. Mule deer harvest per 1,000 purchased deer permits dropped from 92.5 during 2018 to 44.6 during 2023.

IIState's Explanation

Nebraska points to dry conditions, disease and higher antlerless take

NGPC's 2024 volume says falling deer numbers "can largely be attributed to drought (EHD and other mortality factors) and increased antlerless harvest since 2019". It describes the fall in both buck take and herd numbers as something that "has been much faster than anticipated and further than planned".

In its firearm-season harvest news statement NGPC says both permit levels and harvest "had increased in 2019 and 2020 because of depredation complaints across much of the state". For Frenchman the 2020 permit recommendation volume reports an "all time high antlerless MD harvest in 2019". That same year antlerless harvest reached the statewide series high of 2,672.

Disease and survival also receive attention in the agency's reports. The 2021 recommendations mention "Cases of meningeal brain worm" in "several central and southwest units". For fawn production the 2024 volume says it "has also declined significantly in recent years, correlating with drought." Recent research cited there estimated mule deer fawn survival at 0.11 for the southwest and 0.26 for the northwest. The expectation was a range of 0.40 to 0.50. Adult does survived at a rate of about 0.67 in each area compared with the expected 85%.

IIIPermit Reductions

All western units listed had smaller permit quotas in 2024 than they did in 2021

The permit numbers for Frenchman MDCA and Platte MDCA fell in 2022 along with those for Sandhills Any Deer. Upper Platte Any Deer had its reduction in 2023. Sandhills went up to 2,000 in 2019 after starting at 1,500 in 2017 before its drop to 1,200 in 2024. Buffalo MDCA had been cut earlier as had Pine Ridge.

The 2023 recommendations call for a rule to "Prohibit antlerless mule deer harvest on publicly accessible lands statewide" while exempting property enrolled in Open Fields and Waters. NGPC's 2024 rule permits a person "only one unit permit that allows the harvest of a MD buck" within each of these units. The units are Upper Platte, Sandhills, Republican, Platte, Plains, Pine Ridge, Loup West, Frenchman, Calamus West and Buffalo. The agency also reduced November firearm permits by 13% overall to 36,700 from the 2023 total of 41,950.

Antlerless permits absorbed the largest reduction. In a November firearm-season harvest release NGPC reported it had "reduced antlerless tags 64% over the last five years". Across the full set of units authorized antlerless-only season-choice permits fell from a 2021 level of 32,100 to 11,500 during 2025. Antlerless harvest dropped about 74% with a take of 2,672 in 2019 compared with 705 in 2025. Bucks accounted for about 89% of mule deer taken during 2025 compared with about 76% during 2019.

Following the low in 2023 the mule deer take climbed to 5,979 during 2024 and 6,179 during 2025. In the Republican unit discussion the 2025 permit recommendations give the objective as "to allow the herd to grow by restricting the harvest of antlerless mule deer" and say mule deer numbers "do not seem to be responding to past tactics".

IVKansas Comparison

Either-species antlerless-only permits ended in Kansas in 2016 but harvest kept shrinking

Kansas had ended those either-species antlerless-only permits several years before. In a briefing document dated August 2022 the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP) says "Either-species Antlerless Only Permits (ESAO) were no longer issued in Kansas" beginning with the 2016 season and explains that the change sought "to reduce harvest of female mule deer".

Resident draw permits valid for either species also declined. The West zone stayed at 1,425 permits through 2020 before dropping to 959 by 2025. The combined zones offered 2,025 during 2015 but just 1,016 during 2025. The reduction was about 50%.

Even so Kansas's mule deer harvest dropped according to the state agency's harvest reports and subsequent regional tables. The survey-based take estimate was 2,409 during 2014-15 compared with 945 during 2024-25. The 2022-23 estimate dropped about 28% as harvest went from 1,724 to 1,238. That season West zone either-species permit numbers dropped 10% to 1,257 from 1,397.

Drought and reproduction are the main topics in KDWP's statements. The agency's portion of the 2023 regional mule deer status report says CRP grasslands became available for grazing and haying during 2022 "in response to severe drought". In a March 2023 commission briefing KDWP's remark about 2022 was "We had a tough year last year". The 2025 regional status report has KDWP describing "poor reproductive rates of mule deer in Kansas" as "a critical concern". The Commission chair's assessment was "I don't know how much is harvest and how much is other factors".

VReading the Numbers

Harvest alone cannot separate the effects of drought, disease and permits

A harvest count records deer killed by hunters based on reports or agency estimates. Those figures provide no direct measure of herd size or the balance between bucks and does. Permit totals shifted alongside changing herd losses from drought, disease and winter. The harvest record cannot apportion the decline between those factors. No statement cited here assigns a share of the loss to an individual cause. NGPC's leading explanation addresses deer populations overall.

Nebraska's sales totals cover all deer permits including those for whitetails. That makes the column showing mule deer harvest per 1,000 purchased permits an approximate ratio. Unit-level figures report authorized permits rather than sales or animals harvested. In the documents we reviewed from NGPC we found no statewide mule deer harvest totals or all-deer permit sales figures for 2014 or 2015.

Kansas uses survey estimates based on small totals, which lets a change of a few hundred deer produce a large percentage shift. Regional tables agree with KDWP's own totals in 2022-23 and in 2023-24. For 2024-25 the regional tables provide the figure's sole support.

VIPlanning a Hunt

Build Nebraska plans around permit restrictions rather than recovery

We would base a hunt on the restrictions in place for 2025 rather than expect recovery. NGPC reports that herds are currently unresponsive to earlier management approaches. The statewide mule deer take for 2025 totaled 6,179 and remained close to the 2023 low point of 5,400 while sitting far under the 2017 mark of 12,065. Our application rule is to confirm the adopted regulations and permits available for each unit while planning a public-land buck hunt. Final regulations can alter the permit quotas proposed in those books.

With Kansas we approach mule deer as a hunt with a small permit pool because its resident either-species firearm draw had just 1,016 permits available during 2025. Anyone spreading out applications can use our Wyoming analysis of hunt areas that keep leading for buck harvest.