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Tracking deer hunt: DNR offers ‘real time’ harvest count

By Daily News staff 2 min read
MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL Resources wildlife biologist Brian Roell checks the teeth of a buck to age it Tuesday at the DNR’s deer station in Marquette. The firearm deer season began on Tuesday and runs to Nov. 30. The 8-point, 171-pound buck, taken by Scott Burns of Bark River, was the first to be checked at the DNR customer service center in Marquette on Tuesday. The deer was 4.5 years old. (Michigan Department of Natural Resources photo)

As of late Tuesday, a total of 945 buck harvests were reported across the Upper Peninsula under the Michigan Department of Natural Resources' new mandatory reporting system.

Harvest reports may be submitted within 72 hours of tagging a deer, so the figures reflect just a partial count from Tuesday, which was the opening day of the firearm season.

A total of 109 antlerless kills were also reported in the U.P.

The highest buck harvest total for the region came from Menominee County -- 181 bucks and 30 antlerless. Delta County was second, 124 bucks and 21 antlerless; followed by Marquette County, 88 bucks and seven antlerless; Iron, 85 bucks and 24 antlerless; and Dickinson, 84 bucks and 12 antlerless.

Mandatory deer harvest reporting went into effect Sept. 10 in Michigan. Since then, about 87% of the reported harvests have been made via the internet and 13% via the DNR's HuntFish app, said John Pepin, deputy public information officer in Marquette.

"Because this is a new system this year, we do not have comparison data from prior years to properly compare," Pepin said. "One of the best things about this system is that data is available in real time."

As of 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dickinson County was showing a buck harvest of 180 and an antlerless harvest of 32. Iron County's count was 213 bucks and 64 antlerless, while Menominee County's numbers had soared to 446 bucks and 105 antlerless.

Through all seasons, about 136,000 harvest reports had been submitted statewide. The DNR estimates the 2021 overall harvest was 395,000 deer.

The public can access the system at https://www.michigan.gov/dnr/things-to-do/hunting/deer/harvest-reporting.

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