Kentucky hunters harvests 144,506 deer in 2022-2023 season

The Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife has reported that 144,506 deer have been harvested during the 2022-2023 hunting season, which ended on January 16th.

This is the highest total harvest since 2019 and the fourth highest total in the last decade. Kentucky’s 2015-2016 deer season takes the lead for most harvests with 155,734 deer.

The top five counties where deer were harvested include:

Christian – 3471
Hardin – 3393
Shelby – 2929
Breckenridge – 2864
Pendleton – 2816

Here’s an chart that shows the 2022-2023 Kentucky deer harvests by county:

kentucky deer harvest map county — State of Kentucky deer harvest totals for 2022-2023 hunting season for each county

Menifee County came in with the least amount of deer taken in the 2022-2023 season with only 202 deer harvested.

Noelle Thompson is the deer program coordinator for the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife and said, “It was a solid season from start to finish.”

White and red oak acorns contribute to the white-tailed deers behavior throughout the season. When available, deer will feast on acorns due to their abundance and nutritional value.

Kentucky hunters took 79,169 male deer versus 64,337 female.

The majority of Kentucky deer are taken with a modern firearm which resulted in 104,878 deer harvested. 15,672 were killed with an archery tag. Muzzleloader accounted for 10,685 deer harvested.

Here’s a table that shows each weapon used for the deer harvest:

County	Archery	Firearm	Muzzleloader	Crossbow
Christian	385	2597	246	243
Hardin	422	2370	264	337
Shelby	309	2083	282	255
Breckinridge	240	2216	203	205
Pendleton	205	2144	248	219
Crittenden	295	2066	142	204
Hart	247	1973	189	292
Washington	302	1967	205	226
Nelson	268	1914	205	231
Grayson	211	2024	160	220
Hopkins	340	1853	141	275
Muhlenberg	255	1666	182	239
Ohio	240	1791	134	174
Trigg	315	1600	185	219
Graves	194	1854	147	95
Owen	185	1732	221	145
Pulaski	284	1493	144	293
Webster	239	1581	98	211
Green	158	1626	134	150
Logan	270	1480	94	155
Anderson	229	1355	201	145
Caldwell	203	1395	146	109
Bullitt	266	1138	162	226
Spencer	242	1187	139	218
Todd	221	1305	102	132
Calloway	153	1334	143	111
Grant	149	1326	126	122
Bracken	145	1270	151	153
Livingston	154	1295	133	131
Henry	165	1261	145	136
Adair	169	1155	78	197
Harrison	154	1182	121	142
Butler	162	1151	62	166
Allen	114	1158	97	126
Marion	119	1137	99	135
Warren	185	1036	81	184
Henderson	181	1062	83	127
Metcalfe	104	1107	126	96
Taylor	181	1004	94	145
Boone	192	950	113	164
Barren	124	1065	94	106
Laurel	199	861	96	219
Lewis	112	1040	97	95
Mercer	166	899	101	145
Meade	197	851	117	133
Lincoln	163	938	81	106
Casey	96	1002	81	102
Franklin	153	819	135	144
Carter	125	945	87	88
Pike	136	887	109	107
Jefferson	267	635	78	254
Greenup	136	911	91	85
Lyon	184	774	66	144
Scott	166	731	110	144
Union	252	736	43	95
Wayne	138	723	92	152
Monroe	76	879	85	64
Marshall	105	860	64	58
LaRue	91	779	80	85
McCracken	121	789	29	91
Mason	129	694	85	117
Campbell	122	631	85	177
Kenton	164	638	68	131
Cumberland	102	675	83	122
Whitley	118	633	77	116
Daviess	120	682	43	88
Fleming	66	739	71	56
Lawrence	82	690	94	58
McLean	98	675	53	63
Boyd	113	547	47	97
Oldham	118	509	62	114
Nicholas	75	554	88	77
Gallatin	65	561	86	64
Madison	76	539	86	71
Bath	69	606	44	49
Jackson	71	529	73	90
Robertson	69	525	79	60
Clay	79	504	47	95
Carroll	66	517	72	65
Carlisle	52	589	47	26
Knox	112	438	61	101
Edmonson	85	480	46	84
Hancock	56	549	36	50
Trimble	57	517	69	47
Woodford	110	451	51	75
Perry	59	460	59	87
Knott	39	439	97	57
Morgan	46	492	38	42
Garrard	60	430	45	65
Johnson	54	474	38	34
Rockcastle	47	408	53	75
Estill	53	439	47	39
Ballard	46	463	24	21
Bell	64	347	69	62
Simpson	84	378	26	50
Letcher	55	369	43	60
Rowan	54	395	38	35
Floyd	35	383	51	47
McCreary	83	307	34	83
Hickman	26	444	19	16
Leslie	37	339	53	44
Clinton	88	273	45	60
Harlan	34	335	50	38
Russell	50	309	33	65
Boyle	48	327	24	50
Montgomery	33	334	27	34
Jessamine	61	280	25	55
Elliott	37	323	27	19
Clark	36	288	26	23
Breathitt	28	284	30	24
Fulton	9	305	25	8
Wolfe	31	270	22	16
Lee	28	218	28	37
Magoffin	32	224	31	14
Powell	43	220	17	18
Owsley	18	204	40	24
Bourbon	30	202	22	20
Martin	22	199	28	24
Fayette	44	141	18	44
Menifee	25	141	18	18
TOTAL	15672	104878	10685	13271

Table showing the weapon used to harvest deer in each Kentucky county

Kentucky hunters have been diligent in contacting and submitting samples for Chronic Wasting Disease testing. Biologists are worried the disease could spread to the state due to its close proximity to the Kentucky border near Western Tennessee. At this time, there are no reported CWD cases in Kentucky.

Kentucky’s 2023-2024 deer season opens September 2 for archery hunters. Crossbow season will open September 16. Both seasons run through January 15, 2024.

The 2023-2024 modern gun season in Kentucky will be open November 11 – November 26.

More than one 250,000 people hunt deer in the state of Kentucky. Deer hunting contributes over $800 million dollars to Kentucky’s economy on a yearly basis.

You can buy your 2023-2024 hunting and fishing license here – https://fw.ky.gov/Licenses/Pages/How-to-Buy-Licenses-and-Permits.aspx

Keep up with the latest from Kentucky Fish & Wildlife on their Facebook page here – https://www.facebook.com/kdfwr/

Author

Trey Copeland

Hey folks! I'm Trey Copeland, founder of Made To Hunt. I'm from Kentucky and love the outdoors. I've been hunting or fishing in many states including KY, MO, MS, AR, TN and FL as well as Mexico and Costa Rica. For more updates follow me on Twitter.

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