Opening weekend deer totals


State DNR reports amount of deer hunting license sales are down but number of deer harvested is up in ‘22
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) on Tuesday announced preliminary deer harvest and license sale totals for opening weekend of the 2022 gun deer season.
The regular gun deer season continues through this Sunday, November 27, followed by the statewide muzzleloader season on November 28 through December 7, the statewide antlerless only four-day season is December 8-11 and antlerless holiday hunts in select farmland zone counties are later in December.
Wisconsin continues to be a destination location for hunting white-tailed deer. People of all backgrounds search out the great public and private land hunting opportunities across the state to pursue deer, make memories and put a sustainable protein source on their table.
Preliminary license data
Preliminary figures indicate that the number of deer hunters in Wisconsin decreased compared to 2021.
As of midnight Sunday, Nov. 20, sales for gun, bow, crossbow, sports and patron licenses reached 779,123. Of that total, 421,474 were for gun privileges only. The year-to-date sales for all deer licenses are down 2 percent from the same time last year.
The number of conservation patron licenses sold to date in 2022 is 2.2 percent higher than all conservation patron licenses sold in 2021.
Of the total licenses sold, 62 percent were sold online, and 38 percent were sold in-person by DNR license agents and DNR service centers, which includes private businesses across the state.
Final license sales figures will be available in January, at which time DNR staff will perform a thorough analysis and interpretation.
Preliminary deer harvested
In total, 103,623 deer were registered statewide during the opening weekend of the 2022 gun deer hunt, compared to the 90,023 registered for the same period in 2021. This is a 15.1 percent increase over 2021 and is on par with the average opening weekend harvest.
A total of 56,638 bucks were registered on opening weekend, compared to 49,721 in 2021. This is a 13.9 percent increase over 2021 and is 2 percent above the 5-year average.
Conditions for opening weekend this year included some snow cover but were cold with high winds, particularly on Saturday, which suppressed some hunter activity. Conditions improved slightly on Sunday, but wind chill was still a factor in some parts of the state.
Despite the challenging conditions, hunters saw good deer movement overall, with some evidence of bucks still showing breeding behavior.
Throughout the state, warming temperatures during the week will likely lead to a loss of the snow cover in parts of the state. Where it doesn’t melt completely, it will result in crunchy conditions from daytime melting and refreezing at night. Beyond the potential for rain on Thanksgiving Day, conditions should be great for hunting during the remainder of the gun deer season.
Registration of deer are required with GameReg. As a reminder, hunters are required to register their deer by 5 p.m. the day after recovery through GameReg, the game registration system. Harvested deer may be registered in one of three ways: Online at gamereg. wi.gov (fastest and easiest method, by calling 1-844-426-3734. When prompted, use your phone keypad to spell the first three letters of the county. For example, a registrant in Adams County would spell A-D-A by pressing “232.”
The third way to register deer is inperson by finding a station that offers a phone or computer for registration through the online hunting resources stations portal. The DNR reminds hunters when registering deer, that they will need their unique harvest authorization number to begin the process.