Despite the unfavorable weather conditions around much of the state, the DNR reports Wisconsin’s gun deer hunting season is off to a much better start than a year ago. Spokesperson Sawyer Briel says 119,495 deer were taken in the opening weekend of the nine-day hunt, 15 and a half percent more than last year. He says more than half the season’s total harvest takes place on opening weekend.
“…it tends to slow down during the week, and then ramp back up during the last few days of opening season, and just as an overview, the electronic registration has been working extremely well, I think it’s added a lot of convenience for a lot of hunters, so we are getting a lot of feed back there too, it’s been a good season so far, and we’re hearing that from the field.”
According to the DNR weekly totals, 760 deer have been registered in Oneida County so far; about a 10 percent decrease from last year’s opener, while Vilas and Forest Counties have seen about a 20 percent decrease.
To view a county-by-county breakdown from opening weekend search weekly totals on the DNR’s website.
