Maryland Early Deer Harvest Rises 3 Percent to 19,505, With Sika Take Up 8 Percent

Maryland hunters took 19,505 deer between September 11 and October 31, the early archery and muzzleloader portions of the 2026 season, the Department of Natural Resources said in a release on November 9. The total is 3 percent above the 18,930 deer taken in the same window in 2025 and 5.3 percent above the previous five-year average of 18,526.

Archers accounted for 10,671 deer, up 7 percent from last year, while the October muzzleloader season took 8,451, down 6 percent. Hunters took 1,174 deer on the Sundays open to archery, 6 percent of the archery total, and another 383 deer came from managed hunting programs. The sika deer harvest rose 8 percent, from 1,616 to 1,746, almost all of it in Dorchester County, where hunters took 1,483 sika against 253 whitetails. Antlered deer drove the increase: 9,376 bucks were taken against 8,724 a year ago, a 7.5 percent rise, while the antlerless harvest slipped 0.8 percent to 10,129.

Baltimore County led the state at 1,669 deer, followed by Dorchester’s 1,483 sika, Frederick at 1,469 and Garrett at 1,465, where the harvest rose 10.5 percent. The sharpest gains came in the suburban Washington counties, with Prince George’s up 51.5 percent to 409, Calvert up 30.1 percent to 489 and Charles up 29.7 percent to 772. Harvests fell on parts of the Eastern Shore, with Talbot down 23.9 percent to 251, Kent down 16.8 percent to 551 and Dorchester’s whitetail take down 18.4 percent to 253. The department said several Eastern Shore counties had moderate outbreaks of hemorrhagic disease this summer and fall, and localized herd losses may have cut those harvests. Wicomico’s sika harvest rose 47.1 percent to 175.

“Maryland’s early archery and muzzleloader seasons serve as critical tools for managing the statewide deer population alongside the traditional firearms season,” Wildlife and Heritage Service Director Karina Stonesifer said in the release. The department lists hunter effort, weather, acorn crops, disease and herd size as the reasons harvests move from year to year.

The archery season opened September 11 and runs through January 31, 2027 with breaks for the muzzleloader and firearms seasons, followed by Primitive Deer Hunt Days from February 1 to 3 for longbows and recurves. Archers may take 15 antlerless whitetails in Region B and unlimited in the Urban/Suburban Deer Management Zone of Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Howard, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, against two in Region A in Western Maryland. Muzzleloader hunters had an early season statewide from October 22 to 24, with an antlerless-only week in Region B from October 26 to 31 and a sika limit of three with no more than one antlered.

The two-week firearms season opens November 28 and runs through December 12, 2026, and the department posts the firearms harvest after it closes.