MADISON, Wis. — Despite a slight dip in license sales for the 2022 gun deer season, hunters statewide harvested roughly 8% more deer this year compared to Wisconsin’s five-year average.
Officials with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources said during a media briefing Tuesday that in addition to the increase in harvest numbers over the average, totals from 2022’s season were up 14.4% compared to 2021.
“A number of variables contribute to that. Overall the hunting conditions were good,” DNR deer program specialist Jeff Pritzl said. “Certainly the snow on the ground through opening weekend, which persisted into the week helped as well. And we didn’t have any real major negative weather events, other than maybe that high wind that we talked about opening weekend.”
In total, hunters harvested 203,295 deer during the gun deer season, including 98,397 antlered and 104,898 antlerless deer. Of those, nearly half were registered during opening weekend.
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Hunters from all 50 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and 21 different countries — including places as far as Chad and New Zealand — visited the state throughout the season.
All four of the state’s harvest zones saw increased harvests compared to 2021, with the Central Forest Zone seeing the largest increase at 30.6%. A full breakdown of each region’s harvest numbers is available online.
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Hunting incidents slowed down after opening weekend, too. Two people were shot in the final days of the season: one in Sauk County and another in Jefferson County. Neither incident was fatal. Those incidents brought the season’s total to eight, which is slightly higher than the state’s 10-year average of just over six per season.
An 11-year-old boy who was shot when a man was trying to unload his gun marked the sole fatality of the 2022 season.
“We want our folks to continue to hunt safe, hunt smart because we do have a number of hunting seasons still taking place,” Maj. April Dombrowski, DNR’s recreation safety section chief, said. “Whether it’s the muzzleloader season, we have statewide antlerless seasons, the antlerless holiday hunt, a number of those seasons, so important to keep the four rules of firearm safety on the forefront of our minds.”
As always, DNR officials took the time to remind hunters of the state’s four safety rules: Treat every gun as if loaded; Always point muzzle in safe direction; Be certain of what’s in front and behind target; Keep finger off trigger guard until ready to shoot.
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