Wisconsin 1st weekend deer kill down 16%

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- A lack of snow and warm temperatures that suppressed deer movement led to a lackluster opening weekend of Wisconsin's nine-day gun season, with hunters killing thousands fewer deer than last year.

The state Department of Natural Resources released preliminary data Tuesday that showed hunters registered 92,050 deer compared with 103,623 deer last year. That's a 16% drop-off from 2022 and 10% fewer deer than the five-year average for opening weekend. Hunters also registered 51,870 bucks, down 13% from 56,638 over opening weekend in 2022.

In Florence County, the opening weekend buck harvest of 464 was down from 649 a year ago, a drop of 29%. However, it was only 8% below the five-year average.

Florence County's opening weekend antlerless harvest of 208 was up from 136 in 2022, representing a 28% increase from the five-year average and a 53% increase from a year ago.

Forest County's buck harvest of 410 on opening weekend was down by 25% from 2022 and 8% below the five-year average. The antlerless harvest of 124 was up by 53% from a year ago but 2% below the five-year pace.

In northern Marinette County, the buck harvest of 1,054 was down by 31% from 2022 and 11% below the five-year average. The antlerless total of 249 on opening weekend represented a 19% drop from 2022 and a 3% dip below the five-year average.

The number of potential hunters statewide was down slightly from last year. The DNR reported that sales of all types of licenses that allow the killing of a deer using a firearm stood at 539,811 as of midnight Sunday. That's down nearly 3% from the 556,501 licenses sold by the same point last year.

The DNR's deer specialist, Jeff Pritzl, speculated during a news conference that the lack of snow across the state likely helped deer blend into the landscape, making them harder to spot and trail. And warmer temperatures on Saturday and Sunday likely discouraged deer from moving, he said. Pritzl said, too, that he'd heard anecdotes of areas with a lot of acorns on the ground, which means deer don't have to move much to find food.

He added that northern Wisconsin saw a particularly severe winter last year, which may have led to heightened deer mortality and a sparser herd in some regions.

Forecasts call for cooler temperatures and dry weather for the rest of the nine-day season, which could spark more deer movement in the woods, DNR officials said.

Hunters killed 203,295 deer during last year's nine-day gun season. Pritzl said about half of the season total comes during opening weekend; that would put the state on pace for a 184,100 deer harvest this season.

Separately, DNR officials reported two firearm-related injuries over the weekend.

On Saturday morning, a 53-year-old man in Forest County shot himself as he was adjusting his rifle sling on the way to his tree stand.

On Sunday morning, a 62-year-old man in Adams County was hunting from a vehicle on private property when he shot at a dog that he thought was an antlerless deer. He missed the dog but hit the 47-year-old woman who was walking the dog in the stomach.

The woman was taken to a hospital, Lt. Mike Weber, a DNR warden who serves as administrator of the department's hunter education efforts, said during the news conference. Asked if the hunter would be charged, Weber said the incident remains under investigation. He said the man was disabled and as such was allowed to legally hunt from a vehicle.

The DNR reported six firearm-related hunting injury incidents during the 2022 gun season. Three of those incidents involved self-inflicted wounds.

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The Daily News contributed to this report.