South Carolina Deer Population and Management Archive - South Carolina
View the archive by scrolling through the window below or load the document. Historic deer hunt data is below the Archive window on the left column with links to sources. .
Annual Deer Hunt
1950: 10,000
1968: 30,000
1999: 300,762
2000* 299,000
2001: 308,000
2002: 319,902
2003: 273,504
2004: 251,205
2005: 244,045
2006: 221,319
2007: 239,193
2008: 248,778
2009: 231,319
2010: 222,696
2011: 226,458
2012: 217,854
2013: 225,806
2014: 202,952
2015: 195,030
2016: 172,315
2017**185,286
2018: 194,986
2019: 193,073
2020: 197,893
2021: 174,569
2022: 179,414
*2000 estimated from graph
**Only half of historic harvest may have been reported, see page 1 and 2
Deer population trend down, 2002 was the peak harvest.
Since 1997, harvest estimates have been based on hunter surveys. Before that check stations were used resulting in about half as many deer reported as harvested compared to surveys.