A continued decline in hunter numbers didn’t stop 2016-17 from being a successful deer season.

Northern Butler County Wildlife Conservation Officer Chip Brunst said deer harvest numbers won’t be out until April, but he has other ways of measuring the season.

“My most accurate barometer would be our deer processors,” Brunst said. “I would have to say we had an above average year based on what our deer processors told me.”

The final day of the late archery and muzzle loader seasons for most of Butler County was Jan. 14.

Indeed, multiple processors reported increases from 2015-16, or, at the very least, consistencies in business.

Dave Wright reported a record-setting year for his business, Wright’s Deer Processing in Clinton Township, with 1,030 deer as of Jan. 18, surpassing last year’s total by about 100.

Wright credited the record to his business practices.

“It was better than I expected,” he said. “Because of the weather, I didn’t think it was going to be very good at all.”

The lack of snow didn’t help hunters this year. However, as Dan McKruit, of McKruit Meat Packing in Winfield Township pointed out, it also didn’t rain as much as it had during the prior deer season.

Brunst said poor weather impacted hunting this year, but that didn’t stop determined hunters.

“We only had a couple of really good days to hunt,” he said. “It didn’t stop the guys from getting out there. When they had the time, they got out there and did hunt.”

He said there are ideal weather conditions for hunting.

“Snow is the best thing,” Brunst said. “When you can make a shot and you got a blood trail (in the snow) that you can follow, it makes it so much easier for the guys to follow up.”

The year’s mild winter produced some cold, snow-covered days, but they weren’t plentiful.

“Rain kills business,” said Dave Eullinger, owner of Eullinger’s Meats in Zelienople. “Snow helps business. Colder weather always helps business, but as far as this year, we had a little bit of both, so (hunters will) find time.”

Eullinger has operated his shop for 30 years and said for the last five he has been processing a steady 1,100 deer per year.

McKruit said he had an average year, which he noted as positive because he said last year was below average. He also noted a trend of declining hunters.

“Most of the kids don’t want to do it,” he said. “They want to play with their cell phones and live at home with mommy. They’re basically lazy. I would say interest in the younger generation (is declining) and the older generation is retiring, dying off. The trend has been in place a long time.”

Brunst agreed.

“Unfortunately it’s that two-thumb thing that drives the kids to not want to be out hunting,” he said. “The instant gratification from the toys feels better than getting out and going for a walk and relaxing and going out in the outdoors. I think electronics has been the downfall of hunting.”

Another trend Brunst noted is the rise of archery and the decline of rifle’s popularity.

“(Archery season is) one of my busiest times, and 55-to-60 percent of our bucks are shot during the archer seasons,” he said.

Brunst attributed the rise of archery to crossbow hunting being legalized in Pennsylvania. He said crossbows are popular because of their convenience.

“There isn’t a lot of practice involved in it,” he said. “It saves some time and you get to participate in that early sport when it’s warmer and there are more big-antlered deer still left on the hoof.”

In turn, this has led to a decline in rifle hunting.

“That’s just a byproduct of the archery season growing bigger, because you can only shoot one buck a year,” Brunst said. “If they got a doe tag, then they’ll go out and do that then.”

Chris Deal, Wildlife Conservation Officer in southern Butler County, found that not only archery but muzzle loader hunting was popular this year.

“(There was) a lot of general success, and from the archery season it blended into the rifle season,” Deal said. “It went pretty slow. It was steady, but it wasn’t slammed like it was in years past.”

One positive from this year that Brunst noted was how smoothly the season went. Deal and Brunst had no hunting-related shooting incidents to report.

“That is the true mark of a successful hunting season,” Brunst said.