Youth/ Apprentice Deer Hunting Weekend Big Success

The Youth and Apprentice Deer Hunting Weekend, September 26-27, 2015 resulted in 2,347 deer checked electronically (1,387 on Saturday and 960 on Sunday) according to Matt Knox, VDGIF Deer Project Coordinator. The 1,387 on Saturday is virtually identical to the 1,382 electronic check on the Saturday only last year (2014). There is nothing to compare this first weekend too, but the results definitely point to an increased opportunity for youth to participate in deer hunting with the additional hunting day. The Board responding to public input last year during the regulation setting process, added Sundays to the deer, bear and turkey youth days to provide this additional opportunity and promote hunter recruitment.
This was the seventh year of the deer youth day, now weekend. This year was probably an average harvest year following the initial year in 2009, we have had one down year (2010) and one boom year (2013). Weather definitely can have an effect on the harvest as shown in the past when one year there was a monsoon on the youth Saturday and another year it hit the 90’s over most of eastern VA on the youth Saturday. With the weather in much of the state this year on Saturday being light to heavy steady rain , we would have maybe expected a lower harvest but it didn’t happen.
Complete harvest figures will be available after the season which will include both electronic reports and check card reports. The top counties using the telecheck data for the weekend were: