Northern Wisconsin's deer kill up 11.7 percent

By RALPH ANSAMI

[email protected]

The Northern Zone deer-gun kill in Wisconsin increased 11.7 percent this year, although the rest of the state was down, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

Overall statewide; preliminary registration figures show 195,738 deer were harvested for the season that ended Sunday, compared to 197,262 in 2016.

For the second straight year, the largest change in the buck harvest occurred in the Northern Forest Zone after three consecutive mild winters and limited or no antlerless tags in the counties.

Iron County hunters bagged 483 bucks, compared to 335 a year ago. In neighboring Ashland County, 916 bucks were killed, compared to 682 in 2016.

Vilas County showed an increase from 1,020 to 1,224 bucks and Oneida County went from 1,589 to 2,195.

Price County hunters downed 2,456 bucks, compared to 1,970 a year ago.

WDNR big game ecologist Kevin Wallenfang said, “Overall, most hunters that I have talked to were pleased to see more deer than in recent years, especially in the northern forest counties.”

There’s a lot of deer hunting yet this year.

The muzzleloader hunt season runs through Dec. 6 and archery season extends through Jan. 7. There’s a four-day antlerless-only hunt Dec. 7-10.

Hunters may use any unfilled antlerless tag during each of the hunts, but the tags must be used in the zone, county and land type designated on the tag.

Hunters were required to register harvested deer before 5 p.m. the day after harvest at gamereg.wi.gov or by calling 1-844-426-3734. Any hunter who failed to follow mandatory registration rules in the gun-deer season should do so now, despite having missed the deadline.

In 2017, 588,387 gun-deer licenses were sold through the nine-day gun-deer season, around a 2 percent drop over last year.

There were seven non-fatal hunting accidents, with none involving mentored youth hunters.

In Wisconsin, four of the past five deer seasons have been fatality-free regarding shooting accidents.