Pass or Pull the Trigger? Hunters are better able to manage which bucks they want to take or let grow another year and are often taking advantage of the opportunity to selectively harvest animals from the deer herds in the areas they hunt, according to NDA’s analysis. Simonson Photo.
By Nick Simonson
Based on surveys and analysis conducted by the National Deer Association (NDA), more mature deer are being harvested by hunters than in the last century’s worth of seasons. Coming from a compilation of data analyzed and assembled by the NDA in its annual Deer Report from various wildlife agencies throughout the country, deer hunting remains near its peak in terms of high-quality animals, numbers and opportunities presented to hunters, according to Kip Adams, Chief Conservation Officer for the organization.
“Deer populations are at almost all-time highs across the range, but they are literally at the best age structure from the buck population that we’ve had in at least the last 100 years. Hunters are killing more older bucks today than in the lives of anybody [living],” Adams explains.
Additionally, hunters are finding strong populations of deer across the country, despite a few dips in some regions from 2024, including North Dakota. Those numbers help draw more hunters into the field, which in turn pique their interest in not only the hunt, but also those efforts which help to improve it through habitat, conservation, and quality deer management practices. Those labors of establishing and preserving more deer-friendly habitat, educating hunters on what they can do to help prevent the spread of chronic wasting disease, and how to be better stewards of the lands and herds of deer in their area are the recent focus of NDA.
“Across the country deer populations are pretty strong. So, there’s lots of deer to chase; of course there are some states where that’s not quite true, and I know the populations are down a little bit in North Dakota, but overall populations are pretty strong with great age structures and lots of opportunities for hunters,” Adams relates, adding, “nobody fights harder for deer or deer hunters’ rights and opportunities than the NDA. We’re an educational organization. We love to take information and share it with hunters and landowners and managers and provide them some knowledge on how to enhance habitat for deer, manage deer, or get closer to them in the fall.”
Utilizing a spread of communication points including traditional website-based media, social media, educational videos through sites such as YouTube and short videos through other popular platforms, NDA is reaching the varied generations of hunters where they are, when it comes to their information sources. From fun weekly contests like the “Age This” challenge, where the organization presents the photo of a buck and asks hunters to guess its approximate age based on the photo and the animal’s characteristics; to tutorials on what habitat, tree, and food plot plantings best benefit deer from season to season on a property in a given region, media in all its forms are helping educate deer hunters with the goal of improving deer populations, their habitat and hunting with a secondary benefit of helping other wildlife and ultimately, society.
“Communication is a huge thing and fortunately there is more information available today – more good information available – to hunters than ever before. We like to take that, put it in formats that are easily digestible by hunters, get rid of the big words and scientific jargon and just put it where people can actually use it to enhance their hunting,” Adams details of NDA’s communications, “we have all kinds of information for folks on our website, but video is a huge component. People love to see videos; you can watch YouTube about anywhere. So, we make sure to provide that information in many different formats, so however users want to get that, we have that available to them,” he concludes.
More information on NDA and its mission as a non-profit to educate hunters, improve deer hunting and increase quality habitat can be found online at deerassociation.com. The 2025 Deer Report can be downloaded at: deerassociation.com/2025-deer-report/.
Simonson is the lead writer and editor of Dakota Edge Outdoors