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Northern Wisconsin Harvests Twenty Percent Fewer Bucks

Michele Woodford
/
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

Harvest totals from the gun-deer season in northern Wisconsin were down even more than the state average.

Statewide, hunters shot 9 percent fewer bucks than last year, but up north the harvest was 21 percent lower. 

Though there were some challenging weather conditions during this year’s nine-day gun season, DNR Wildlife Biologist Jeremy Holtz says the major factor has been last winter’s extreme cold and snow. 

“And all across the north we were well above one hundred for winter severity. And whenever we see that, we know we can expect a 25-30 percent drop in buck harvest.”

Statewide, deer license sales were down four percent which may have also contributed to the harvest drop. 

“There probably was a little less participation. Some folks were scared off by the reports of snow, or couldn’t get to their camps. And some folks may not have come up north because there were no antlerless tags available. So it’s probably a combination of several factors, it’s probably not just one particular thing that caused it.”

Northern Wisconsin’s buck harvest was about 19,000 during the gun deer season. About 10,000 of those were taken during opening weekend.

The state’s total gun-deer harvest was almost 192,000.

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