Deer harvest proves less than last year’s numbers

Preliminary deer harvest and license sale numbers for the opening weekend of the 2024 gun deer season, have been released. Figures indicate the number of gun deer hunters in Wisconsin, slightly increased, compared to 2023.

As of Nov. 24, sales for gun deer privileges (which include gun, archery, crossbow, conservation patron and sports licenses) reached 778,111, up 0.48 percent from the same time last year. Final license sales figures will be available in January, at which time, DNR staff will perform a thorough analysis and interpretation.

In all, hunters registered 89,203 deer statewide, during the opening weekend of the 2024 gun deer hunt, compared to 90,831 registered for the same period in 2023. This is a 1.8 percent decrease from a year ago, and 4.7 percent below the five-year average.

Hunters registered 49,038 antlered deer on opening weekend, compared to 51,261 in 2023, a 4.3 percent decrease. The antlerless harvest was 40,165, which is up 1.5 percent from last year.

Conditions for opening weekend this year, were mostly cloudy and dry, with some light precipitation in places, Saturday morning. Mornings were cool and quiet, while temperatures rose to near, or above, 40ºF each day, which made for comfortable conditions for hunters.

Reports from the field varied widely from good deer activity, to little or no daytime deer movement. Some reports of breeding activity were still coming in, but overall, deer sightings and harvest were down, as expected, given the late opening date, relative to the peak of the breeding season.

There were no firearm-involved hunting incidents to report during the opening weekend, as opposed to two firearm-involved hunting incidents in 2023.