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Brant Harvest Study: What the Numbers Say

| by Topics: Hunting, Waterfowl Harvest

brant-goose-harvest-study

Do you love hunting Brant Geese in New Jersey? We’ve got some good news for you….

At WaterfowlChoke we love everything about hunting geese, whether it’s making the perfect shot, learning to call effectively, or buying the best choke tube, we want to help people in every aspect of goose hunting – so we know as well as anyone how important harvesting Brant Geese is.

Harvesting a Brant Goose is the most iconic achievement in duck hunting, especially when it’s a memorable hunt or you get a banded bird. However, there are a few people who have made harvesting Brant Geese their specialty, and you’d be surprised just how many Brant Geese have been harvested in America since the turn of the millennium.

So, to look deeper into the Brant Goose harvest, we decided to do some research into just how many Brant Geese are harvested each year and what areas shoot the most – here’s what we found.

For this research, we looked at the adaptive harvest reports for each state in 2021 in the United States, to reveal which American states are best for harvesting Brant Geese.

Where are the Most Brant Geese Being Shot?

We discovered that hunters who hunt Brant Geese in New Jersey are the most likely to harvest the most amount of Brant Geese per hunt, followed by in New York and Alaska. Since 2021, those in New Jersey have harvested 4,779 Brant Geese, whilst in New York and Alaska, hunters have harvested 4,376 and 1,895, respectively.

The ten states that harvested the most Brant Geese, and the number each state has recorded for 2021, are as follows:

  1. New Jersey – 4,779
  2. New York – 4,376
  3. Alaska – 1,895
  4. Virginia – 1,378
  5. Washington – 1,256
  6. Massachusetts – 1,193
  7. North Carolina – 990
  8. California – 948
  9. Rhode Island – 777
  10. Connecticut – 634

(Source: USFWS Harvest Survey)

The data showed that the Brant Goose hunters sticking to the bays and coastal marshes of New Jersey are most likely to harvest a Brant Goose. Shockingly, Washington Brant goose hunters have fallen drastically on the harvest list and you have to wonder if they will even see a Brant Goose on the average goose hunt.

More Waterfowl Harvest Studies
Harvest studies are conducted by the USFWS each year in the U.S. to gauge the number of ducks and geese that are taken by hunters. This aids in setting bag limits and managing migratory bird populations from year to year. Below are the most common migratory species with available harvest data. Please click the links below to see how many birds were harvested and where.

The Most Common Shotgun Used for Harvesting Brant Geese

When looking at which shotgun people had used to harvest a Brant Goose, the 12-gauge was revealed as the most commonly used shotgun, with over 80% of hunters choosing it. A 20 gauge and a 10 gauge shotgun rounded off the top three, with 20 gauge being the second most popular.

The 28 gauge came in fourth place with 12% usage, while the 410 bore came fifth, with 5%.

We also delved into which month people had been harvesting the most Brant Geese, and discovered that November was the most common, with 43% of Brant Geese harvested. The months of December (33%) and January (24%) came in second and third. This is likely due to goose season timing by state and hunter participation levels peaking at certain months.

states-that-shoot-the-most-brant-geese

Waterfowlchoke editors, after reviewing the data, said:

“As any goose hunter will know, harvesting a Brant Goose is a big achievement – unless you’re a well-known hunting guide, an amateur hunter with multiple limit hunts on Brant Geese is quite the accomplishment.

“It’s interesting to see those in New Jersey harvesting so many Brant Geese – especially when you consider the lower hunter participation rates compared to states like New York– you have to wonder what tactics they’re using out there on the Atlantic Flyway! We’re planning to make this research a recurring thing, so that we can track how Brant Goose harvests in the US are changing – who knows, maybe New York will surpass New Jersey this time next year.”

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