Extended Deer Hunting Season Results In Record Harvest With Weeks Remaining

The number of deer taken on Nantucket has reached a record high this year, according to preliminary numbers from the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. And with around a month left in the extended winter hunting season, the total number of deer harvested will continue to climb.

Through the end of the traditional fall season, 840 deer were killed on Nantucket, down around 4 percent from last year, according to state deer and moose biologist Martin Feehan. However, the state has twice extended the primitive firearms and archery hunting seasons on Nantucket in recognition of the island’s staggeringly dense deer population. Under the latest extended deadline, hunting season will continue until February 14th.

Feehan said that the extended hunting season has already been successful, with a record 37 deer harvested in just the first six days.

“Combined with the fall seasons, the overall 2025-2026 season is now already above the previous record set in 2023 with 33 days of hunting remaining in the winter deer season,” Feehan said in a message to the Current. 

It is possible that one reason for the success of the extended season is the island’s increased participation in MassWildlife’s Hunters Share the Harvest program, through which hunters can donate venison to those in need.

The Nantucket Land Bank began processing venison for the program at a new agricultural processing facility in the basement of a Boynton Lane property now serving as a local food security hub early in shotgun season. So far, the Land Bank has processed 45 deer.

“MassWildlife have also already had a record number of Nantucket deer donated to MassWildlife’s Hunters Share the Harvest program with bringing on the Nantucket Land Bank Processing Center as one of our contracted processors,” Feehan said. “Statewide we are approaching 50,000 meals distributed from just this season.”

Statewide, a record 375 deer have been donated, well above last year’s previous record of 207. Nantucket has also already passed the local record by at least one deer.

Nantucket’s extraordinarily large deer population, easily the densest in the state, has a wide array of negative impacts on the island. The deer cause massive damage to local ecosystems, are notorious disease vectors, routinely prove a nuisance to local landscapers and gardeners, and are a danger to drivers.

The deer donation program helps to address these problems, while also fighting food insecurity on the island.

The deer processed at the Land Bank’s facility have so far become 239 packages of two-pound ground venison, which were distributed to the Nantucket food pantry and Nourish Nantucket. All of the meat stayed on Nantucket and went directly to food-insecure island residents.

The Land Bank is “100 percent confident” that the program will continue next year.

“The deer aren't going anywhere,” Emily Goldstein Murphy, the Land Bank’s director of environmental and agricultural resources, said. “Unfortunately, hunger and need aren't going anywhere.”

The Land Bank hopes to expand the program next year, taking in more deer.

“We can process as many as I can get through the door,” Belanger said.

They also hope to acquire a deer damage permit, which would allow the Land Bank to take deer outside of hunting season under certain conditions, and look into processing poultry at the facility as well.

A local activist group called ACK Deer has championed the idea of a local venison processing facility in recent months. Last fall, the Land Bank and Nourish closed on a Boynton Lane property that is now being used as a food security hub. The agricultural processing facility is located in the basement, the food pantry is on the first floor, and Nourish has offices upstairs, meaning that venison processed at the facility doesn’t have to travel very far.