Utah recorded its smallest mule deer harvest since 1936 in 2023

IA historic low

The 2023 harvest of 20,344 was smaller than every season after 1936

In 2024 the harvest recovered to 24,721. The 2026 range-wide status report lists a harvest of 27,756 for 2025. DWR has not yet included that year in its own table. For 2025 general-season buck permits have returned to 80,200 while the new DWR plan puts more units under lower buck-to-doe targets.

The size of the harvest decline changes with the year you choose as a starting point. Between 2004 and 2014 the annual harvest average was 28,054. Over 2015 to 2018 it averaged 35,605. The 2023 total was about 42% below the 34,856 recorded in 2015. In 2024 the take was about 12% lower than the average for 2004 to 2014. The table below has its four biggest totals in 2015 to 2018. Any decline calculated from 2015 therefore uses a high starting point.

IIChanging the rules

Permits climb while more units get lower targets for bucks per 100 does

Utah's general-season buck permit count was 64,725 in 2023, rose to 71,525 in 2024 and reached 80,200 in 2025. In 2019 antlerless permits reached 2,220. The count for 2025 is 340.

Since 2012 DWR has used each unit's ratio of bucks to does to set that unit's permit count. DWR explains the new Utah mule deer management plan in its memo from March 2025. The agency says more general-season units have post-season targets of 15 to 17 bucks measured per 100 does. Fewer units have targets of 18 to 20. The plan gives recent data as its reason. Those data suggest that "managing at higher buck-to-doe ratios may be detrimental to deer populations."

A defined rule now governs permit adjustments. DWR says the old process required input from the Regional Advisory Council and approval from the Wildlife Board whenever permits changed. In the range-wide report for 2026 the agency says an adjustment "that doesn't exceed a 20% change from the previous year happens automatically." DWR says the new plan also considers weapon restrictions on some units. The options include traditional archery equipment limited to longbows and recurve bows, muzzleloaders without optics or 209 primers and rifles without scopes or semi-auto actions. DWR says "Currently these restrictions are implemented on four management units."

IIILooking farther back

Average harvest declined after the 1950s and 1960s

Harvest reached its high in 1961 when 202,305 hunters afield took 132,278 deer. Averages grouped by decade show the decline afterward.

The 1950s averaged 105,282 harvested deer per year. For the 1960s that average was 106,690. By the 1990s it had dropped to 44,013 and by the 2000s to 29,314. The highest decade average for hunters afield belonged to the 1980s at 224,517. That decade's average harvest was 78,975.

DWR provides two reference points in its history of permits and buck-to-doe ratios. According to the Utah section in the 2023 range-wide status report, the state issued 97,000 permits through the public draw for general-season deer units in 1994. The postseason ratio per 100 does was 8 bucks. That report describes the ratio as "peaking at 23 bucks per 100 does in 2015." That buck-to-doe high came in 2015. It was also the first season in the group of four with the highest harvests since 2004.

IVBehind the decline

Permit counts, hunter numbers and estimated herd size dropped during the same years

Utah's general-season buck permit count dropped from 90,650 in 2018 to 64,725 in 2023. DWR's archived announcement about permits for 2023 says the Utah Wildlife Board approved a reduction for "the fifth consecutive year." DWR also describes the cut to 64,725 for 2023 as "largely in response to public concern about winter mortality."

Between 2018 and 2024 the number of hunters afield dropped about 22%. It went from 86,788 down to 67,587. Over that period harvest per hunter declined about 12%, moving from 0.415 down to 0.366. The total take dropped about 31%, going from 36,060 down to 24,721. Buck harvest declined from 32,010 down to 23,317. Antlerless harvest declined from 4,050 down to 1,404. The figures show both a smaller hunter count and less harvest per hunter.

Weather also figures in DWR's explanation. The statewide plan says "a hard winter in Northern Utah in 2017 followed by several consecutive years of extreme drought led to a declining trend" and places that decline between 2017 and 2021. In its range-wide status report for 2020, DWR reported a drop exceeding 50,000 deer compared with previous years. It called that decrease "largely due to severe drought followed by harsh winter conditions." Those explanations concern herd size. The harvest table does not measure that.

For 2022 DWR's model estimates 335,000 deer. The estimate for 2023 is 279,000. It rises to 295,200 for 2024 and to 327,570 for 2025. Cuts in permits occurred during the same years as declines in estimated herd size. Harvest figures by themselves cannot tell us how much of the decline came from either factor.

VWhat remains unclear

Statewide harvest figures cannot untangle tags, weather and hunting success

The table gives no explanation of the counting methods used in individual early years. Harvest figures for limited-entry, antlerless and general-season hunts come from required reporting online or by phone. Voluntary reports supply the mitigation and depredation figures. DWR projects those results using the full permit count. We make broad comparisons among decades and closer comparisons among recent years. The totals cover harvest from limited-entry hunts, cooperative wildlife management units (CWMU), antlerless hunts, extended-archery hunts and mitigation hunts. Their scope extends beyond general-season buck hunting. DWR's table lacks antlerless harvest figures for some early years. DWR does not yet have a harvest total for 2025.

Harvest means the reported or estimated number of deer hunters killed. It does not count the herd or give the herd's sex ratio.

The number of hunters afield also comes from a projection. DWR writes that its harvest data "were projected by the total number of permits to obtain estimates of the number of animals harvested, number of hunters afield, and number of days hunted." The agency calculates its own success rates using raw figures. It cautions that those rates may differ from projected harvest divided by the projected hunter count. We calculate harvest per hunter using that simple division. A footnote identifies total hunters afield for 2002 as an estimate too.

The model produces herd estimates with wide uncertainty. DWR's explanations for adopting its plan are the agency's statements. We have not tested them.

VIReading your unit

Use its recent seasons as the measuring stick

The statewide curve gives a poor picture of an individual unit. Our approach is to examine that unit's permit count, harvest and ratio over its most recent several seasons. Statewide the four highest harvest years since 2004 ran from 2015 to 2018. Check whether those seasons supply a unit's baseline. DWR chooses general-season permit counts separately for every unit. Tag counts will change at that same level.

The decrease in 2023 marked the fifth straight year of cuts and came amid concern over winter mortality. Permit counts then climbed in 2024 and 2025. That history offers no guarantee of an identical response following the next hard winter. On more general-season units the plan calls for 15 to 17 bucks measured per 100 does. On fewer units it calls for 18 to 20.