December 9, 2021 at 10:31 a.m.
Preliminary numbers show deer hunting licenses down slightly
Harvest down 7.9% statewide
Preliminary numbers show deer hunting licenses down slightly
Sixty percent of licenses sold were purchased online with the other 40% being sold at in-person DNR license agent locations. License sales will continue through the remainder of the deer hunting seasons.
A recent DNR press release reported the firearm harvest in the state as down 7.9%, with that majority trend being in antlerless harvests. This year's antlerless harvest was down 13.2% over last year. Antlered harvests were down only 1.3%. In total 84,952 antlered deer and 90,715 antlerless deer were registered by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, November 28.
Only the Northern Forest Zone showed an increase in harvest from 2020. Antlered kills were up 14.9% through Sunday, November 28 at midnight and antlerless harvests were up by 1.7% to 12,595. The antlered harvest total was 19,602.
The Southern Farmland Zone saw the biggest drop in harvest registrations with 17,433 antlered and 20,751 antlerless registrations, a decline of 13.8% and 19.5% respectively. Central Forest hunters harvested 1.7% fewer antlered deer than in 2020 and 4.7% fewer antlerless deer. In the Central Farmland Zone, antlered harvest was almost steady, only declining 1.8%, but antlerless harvests fell 14.0% over last year.
In Oneida County, preliminary results from the nine-day gun deer season on the DNR website show a total of 1,536 deer were registered by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, November 28. Of those, 991 were antlered and 545 were antlerless. Antlered harvests were up 14.7% over last year but ran 17.7% below the five-year average from 2016 to 2020. Antlerless harvests were down 9.9% over last year and lagged behind the five-year average by 11.4%.
In Vilas County, the DNR reported 1,091 total harvests for the nine day season. Antlered deer accounted for 736 of those through the end of the gun deer season while antlerless harvests sat at 355. Antlered harvests were up 11.3% over last year. Antlerless harvests were up 111.3%, or just more than double that of the 2020 season. These numbers put antlered harvest 11.8% below the five year average from 2016 to 2020. The antlered harvests are up 49.0% from that same five year average.
Full details of harvest numbers through all of the seasons will be available in January, according to the DNR. Those looking for more information can go to the DNR website dnr.wi.gov and look for the 2021 Wisconsin Deer Harvest Summary.
Beckie Gaskill may be reached via email at [email protected].
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