NYS Deer Hunter’s Math

Posted On August 5, 2026

New York State’s New 2026 “Earn a 2nd Buck” System

An Advanced Placement Math Test

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Now I know why I was forced to struggle with all of those math word problem test questions when I was in school.

Remember those?

“An eastbound train leaves the station in Seattle travelling at an average speed of 145 miles per hour, and a westbound train leaves the station in Boston travelling at an average speed of 165 miles per hour. If the eastbound train makes seven stops on its route, each averaging twenty minutes, and the westbound train makes nine stops on its route, each averaging twenty three minutes, and each train carries an average of 1800 gallons of fuel, what is the price of a bushel of corn in Akron, Ohio?”

I just picked up my 2026 NYS hunting license & tags.

Those test questions were training my hunter’s brain for NYS’s tangled webb math of this day.

I’m an NYSDEC Lifetime Sportsman’s License holder. With last year’s move to printable paper tags, I signed up for email delivery of my annual licenses. When this year’s tags arrived & I printed them off from my email, included was one 2026 whitetail deer tag. It read simply:

“Antlered Deer #1”

It appears to me from the tag, that being bow hunter certified, I can legally to fill this tag at any time during the 2026 NYS bowhunting, muzzleloading or regular season.

After reading through NYSDEC’s update bulletin on 2026 changes to NYS’s deer hunting regulations, including the new “Earn a 2nd Buck” program and what appeared to be a wide array of expansions & changes to the availabilty and usage of DMP antlerless tags, in lieu of doing so electronically and risking uncorrectable error, I decided to do what I’ve always done and go to Walmart to apply for and purchase the remainder of my 2026 deer season’s tags; bowhunting, muzzleloading, and deer management permits (DMP’s), the later of which in past year’s I was allowed to apply for two, but as the Walmart sporting goods clerk reminded me, this year those numbers have been expanded, with that number being expanded to four if two of them were from Wildlife Management Units (WMU’s) now allowing “unlimited bonus” DMP’s.

My hunter’s math was already becoming more confusingly complex.

Since none of the designated WMU’s with unlimited/bonus DMP’s were in areas that I hunt, I chose to pass on “expanded DMP opportunities” 3 & 4. I was, however, awarded one DMP for each of the two WMU’s that I do actively hunt, each reading simply “DMP antlerless tag” with a notation at the bottom of each of the WMU that particular DMP tag was valid in.

In addition, I received my bowhunting & muzzloading tags, each of which now read:

“Bow/Muz Antlerless Deer”

Now, in the past, one of them would have read, “Bow/Muz Either Sex”, which would have allowed me to take a buck during bow season IN ADDITION TO my regular season antlered deer tag, which means in past years I could leagally tag two bucks during deer season. That’s not necessarily the case any longer. Beginning this year, hunters are now issued only ONE buck tag for the season. A second buck tag is available, but has to be “earned”. “How?”, one might ask. We’ll get to that in a moment. At this juncture I am still calculating my number of doe tags.

So, at this point, I have in my possession five valid 2026 deer season tags: One “Antlered Deer” tag, which may be used in any WMU, during any season (Bow/Muz/Rifle) for which I am eligible, two “Bow/Muz Antlerless” tags, which can also be used in any WMU, but only in their designated part of the season, and two DMP’s, one for each of the zones within which I hunt, either or both of which can be filled during any 2026 deer season.

In addition to those five tags, I remain eligible to add “Consigned DMPs” from other hunters to my license. In the past, each hunter was limited to adding two consigned DMP’s to their license, which I have always in the past done. However, beginning this year, that number is now unlimited, meaning, even in WMUs still limited to two DMP tags, I can legally shoot as many does as I can get consigned tags for.

Confused Yet?

Just wait.

It gets better.

Remember that 2nd buck that in past years hunters with bowhunting certifications were always eligible for? Well, now to obtain that 2nd buck tag, hunters must “Earn a Buck”.

How is that 2nd buck earned?

By tagging a doe and reporting it.

According to the NYSDEC, once a doe is tagged and reported through the harvest reporting system, that “Earn a 2nd Buck” tag will be awarded automatically. Since, for those so equipped, deer harvest reports can now be made via cell phone, by my hunter’s math calculation, it is now technologically feasible that a rifle deer hunter could tag and harvest two bucks in one day!

Now some might say: “Oh, none of this matters. Who tags that many deer in a season anyway?” Well, I tagged three deer last year, two bucks and a doe, and four deer the year before that, two bucks and two does. So I personally have tagged seven deer in the past two years, and while that may put me in a small category of NYS deer hunters, I’m sure I’m not entirely alone in those numbers.

Which leads me to the 2026 NYS “Earn a 2nd Buck” math question:

A fully licensed NYS deer hunter is bow/muz certified & eligible for & obtains all of their WMU’s alloted DMP’s. That hunter successfully tags & reports one doe. That same hunter also initially receives two consigned doe tags from other hunters. How many total deer can that hunter legally harvest and tag during New York State’s whitetail deer season?

The answer?

Infinity.

The correct answer is now infinity because with the newly established DMP regulations and “Earn a 2nd Buck” program, a legally licensed hunter in NYS can harverst two whitetail bucks and an infinite number of does, because there are no longer any limits on the number of consigned DMP’s a NYS whitetail deer hunter an add to their license.

Go ahead.

Check my math.

Now the only remaining hunter’s math questions are:

How much space do I have in my freezer?

And how do I get extra credit?

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Until Our Trails Cross Again:

ADKO