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Bufflehead Harvest Study: What the Numbers Say

| by Topics: Hunting, Waterfowl Harvest

bufflehead-harvest-study

Do you love hunting Buffleheads in Michigan? We’ve got some good news for you….

At WaterfowlChoke we love everything about hunting ducks, 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 duck hunting – so we know as well as anyone how important harvesting Buffleheads is.

Harvesting a Bufflehead 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 Buffleheads their specialty, and you’d be surprised just how many Buffleheads have been harvested in America since the turn of the millennium.

So, to look deeper into the Bufflehead harvest, we decided to do some research into just how many Buffleheads 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 Buffleheads.

Where are the Most Buffleheads Being Shot?

We discovered that hunters who hunt Buffleheads in Michigan are the most likely to harvest the most amount of Buffleheads per hunt, followed by in Wisconsin and Tennessee. Since 2021, those in Michigan have harvested 29,300 Buffleheads, whilst in Wisconsin and Tennessee, hunters have harvested 27,408 and 17,763, respectively.

The fifteen states that harvested the most Buffleheads, and the number each state has recorded for 2021, are as follows:

  1. Michigan – 29,300
  2. Wisconsin – 27,408
  3. Tennessee – 17,763
  4. Maryland – 17,488
  5. Virginia – 17,083
  6. California – 15,877
  7. North Carolina – 15,302
  8. Washington – 13,640
  9. Minnesota – 12,373
  10. New Jersey – 11,482
  11. North Dakota – 10,042
  12. Alabama – 8,844
  13. Texas – 7,116
  14. New York – 7,090
  15. Louisiana – 6,666

(Sources: USFWS Harvest Survey)

The data showed that the Bufflehead hunters sticking to the marshes and lakes of Michigan are most likely to harvest a Bufflehead. Shockingly, Texas Bufflehead hunters have fallen drastically on the harvest list and you have to wonder if they will even see a Bufflehead on the average duck 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 Buffleheads

When looking at which shotgun people had used to harvest a Bufflehead, 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 Buffleheads, and discovered that December was the most common, with 43% of Buffleheads harvested. The months of November (33%) and January (24%) came in second and third. This is likely due to duck season timing by state and hunter participation levels peaking at certain months.

states-that-shoot-the-most-buffleheads

Waterfowlchoke editors, after reviewing the data, said:

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

“It’s interesting to see those in Michigan harvesting so many Buffleheads – especially when the hunter participation rate is lower than many other states – you have to wonder what tactics they’re using out there on the Mississippi Flyway! We’re planning to make this research a recurring thing, so that we can track how Bufflehead harvests in the US are changing – who knows, maybe Wisconsin will surpass Michigan this time next year.”

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