DNR: License sales, harvest numbers down slightly through gun deer season

On Dec. 2, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) put out their preliminary nine-day gun deer season numbers. According to the DNR, numbers were slightly off of last years numbers. DNR deer program specialist Jeff Pritzl said that while license sales were down slightly, they were about average for the last four years, as last year’s numbers were up slightly from the previous year. The change, he said, was far less than 1 percent. Those numbers, however, were bolstered by stronger archery and crossbow license sales. Pritzl said over 50,000 Wisconsin hunters are exclusively archers currently, leaving approximately 550,000 participants in the gun deer season.

Statewide harvest, he said, was slightly off of last year’s trend as well as the five year average. Antlered deer registration fell approximately 2.5 percent from 2024. However, he said, there were 13 Deer Management Units (DMUs) that had record antlered deer harvests in 2024. This year’s antlerless harvest was reported to be up 1 percent over last year. Preliminary numbers showed the total number of deer registered through the nine day gun deer hunt was 294,757. Of those, 1656,917 were antlered deer and 137,840 were antlerless.

It was difficult to know, specifically. The difference in harvest in the Northern Forest Zone DMUs with the changes that were made this year, moving back toward a more habitat-based DMU structure. Overall, however, numbers in the Forest Zones together were comparable to recent years, he said. The local variability, Pritzl said, tends to get washed out in the statewide numbers, but things such as two different rounds of snow impacting the state throughout the season definitely affected hunters and hunting success in different areas. 

For the Northern Forest Zone, he said, the trend was to see more hunter success in western counties. The further east hunters were, he said, there was more decline in numbers. The Central Farmland continues to carry most of the weight of harvest in the state. That zone expanded a bit this year as well, taking over a portion of the Forest Zones. 

In the Northern Forest Zone, Just under 3,000 deer were registered through the end of the gun deer season in total. Of those, 1,968 were antlered and 1,106 were antlerless harvests. These numbers include all seasons up to the end of the nine day gun deer season. In DMU 116, 1,109 deer had been harvested, with 858 of those being antlered deer. In 117, 790 deer were registered through the end of the nine day with 477 being antlered. DMU 121 saw 1,464 deer registered with 1,401 being antlered deer. In DMU 122, 743 deer were registered so far this year with 452 being antlered. DMU 118, which includes much of the northwestern portion of Iron County and the northeastern portion of Ashland County, saw by far the fewest dee registrations with only 416 deer registered in total. Of those 354 were antlered. DMU 122 and 117 were the only other DMUs in the Northwoods to see fewer than 1,000 deer registered.

Two DMUs in the Northwestern part of the state, too, saw very low registration numbers, with DMU 104, the Apostle Islands, seeing only 2 deer registered and DMU 105, the Madeline Island Area, saw only 62 deer registered. 

Pritzl said there was a bit of confusion for some hunters with the changing of the DMUs in the Northern Forest Zone. However, for the most part, he said, the transition seemed to have gone smoothly. 

Pritzl said there was approximately an 8 percent drop in harvest in the Southern Farmland Zone. That was likely attributed in part to the snow storm that came through the state for the second weekend of the season. The rest of the state saw approximately stable harvest, he said. He said there were still some opportunities for hunters to get out during the muzzleloader season as well as some continued antlerless specialists.

Erin Larson of the DNR spoke about Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) sampling. She shared some preliminary sampling numbers. So far, the state had 10,200 deer samples for all of 2025. So far there have been just over 1,000 positives. The number of deer sampled is higher than last year, but the number of positives is approximately the same. She said she expected final numbers to track close to the same as last year. Last year, hunters had approximately 18,000 deer sampled, returning approximately 1,700-1,800 positive results. 

She said there were still opportunities for hunters to have their deer tested. However, some self-serve kiosks as well as carcass dumpster locations may be removed during late season hunts, so hunters should check ahead of time to ensure those services were still being offered at their preferred location. 

Both Vilas and Oneida Counties remain priority sampling areas for CWD. Hunters are encouraged to have their deer sampled in all locations, but DNR is placing a special emphasis on counties were newer first detections, such as Oneida and Vilas. At the time of this writing, no new counties had been added to the list of CWD-affected counties during the 2025 dear season.

DNR warden Major April Dombrowski reported that there had been no further firearm-related incidents during the nine day gun deer season other than the two that happened on opening day. In one case, a hunter was hit in the buttocks by a stray bullet while walking out to hunt. That hunter was treated and released at a local hospital. In the other incident, a hunter fell victim to what is believed to be an accidental discharge of a his fire arm. The hunter was shot through the chest and found later by family members when he did not return from hunting on private land. The first incident was in Grant County and the latter in Fon du Lac County. The overall trend in hunting firearm incidents, she said, continues to go down. In all ten of the last seasons, the number of incidents has remained in the single digits, with several of those seasons seeing no fatalities.

Beckie Gaskill may be reached via email at [email protected].