Maryland Reports 2025 Early Deer Season Results
November 10, 2025
Deer hunting opportunities still abound for the rest of the year
Photo by Reinhardt Sahmel, submitted to the 2017 Maryland DNR Photo Contest.
Maryland hunters harvested 18,930 deer during the early portion of the 2025 archery and muzzleloader seasons. The harvest was an 8.1% decrease from last year’s official harvest of 20,592 deer for the same period.
The annual deer harvest fluctuates from year to year for a number of reasons, including hunter effort, weather conditions, availability of natural foods like acorns, disease outbreaks, and current population size of the herd.
“Many areas saw an abundant acorn crop, which likely reduced deer movements, making deer less visible and harder to hunt,” said Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife and Heritage Service Director, Karina Stonesifer. “Though harvest is down compared to 2024, our 2025 harvest seems to be tracking close to what we have experienced in past seasons.”
Along with the annual deer firearm season, archery and muzzleloader deer hunting are essential components of the state’s deer management program and assist with controlling abundant deer populations across Maryland.
The two-month harvest included 9,984 deer taken during the archery season and 8,947 harvested during the October muzzleloader season. The archery harvest decreased by 19%, while the muzzleloader harvest increased 9% compared to the previous year. The sika deer harvest decreased 8% from 1,764 deer to 1,616 deer.
Multiple central and southern Maryland counties experienced significant outbreaks of epizootic hemorrhagic disease this summer and fall. As a result, the disease likely reduced local deer populations and may have contributed to the lower harvests in those areas.
Hunters harvested 793 deer on Sundays that were open to archery hunting, accounting for 8% of the total archery harvest.
Below are the total harvests for deer seasons from Sept. 5 through Oct. 31.:
Antlered
Antlerless
Total
2025
2024
%Change
2025
2024
%Change
2025
2024
%Change
445
465
-4.3%
294
404
-27.2%
739
869
-15.0%
184
253
-27.3%
258
399
-35.3%
442
652
-32.2%
664
609
9.0%
993
970
2.4%
1,657
1,579
4.9%
172
163
5.5%
204
284
-28.2%
376
447
-15.9%
182
167
9.0%
297
393
-24.4%
479
560
-14.5%
1
0
*
0
0
*
1
0
*
587
517
13.5%
804
845
-4.9%
1,391
1,362
2.1%
406
345
17.7%
510
546
-6.6%
916
891
2.8%
260
340
-23.5%
335
490
-31.6%
595
830
-28.3%
144
110
30.9%
166
242
-31.4%
310
352
-11.9%
789
805
-2.0%
648
732
-11.5%
1,437
1,537
-6.5%
673
692
-2.7%
870
856
1.6%
1,543
1,548
-0.3%
845
807
4.7%
481
563
-14.6%
1,326
1,370
-3.2%
383
392
-2.3%
578
644
-10.2%
961
1,036
-7.2%
281
222
26.6%
440
429
2.6%
721
651
10.8%
330
268
23.1%
332
412
-19.4%
662
680
-2.6%
334
371
-10.0%
640
624
2.6%
974
995
-2.1%
128
203
-36.9%
142
318
-55.3%
270
521
-48.2%
259
213
21.6%
406
501
-19.0%
665
714
-6.9%
274
290
-5.5%
323
479
-32.6%
597
769
-22.4%
140
135
3.7%
189
244
-22.5%
329
379
-13.2%
10
9
*
3
4
*
13
13
*
159
142
12.0%
171
254
-32.7%
330
396
-16.7%
631
626
0.8%
549
650
-15.5%
1,180
1,276
-7.5%
166
185
-10.3%
265
357
-25.8%
431
542
-20.5%
70
94
*
49
65
*
119
159
*
193
171
12.9%
227
238
-4.6%
420
409
2.7%
14
25
*
32
30
*
46
55
*
8,724
8,619
1.2%
10,206
11,973
-14.8%
18,930
20,592
-8.1%