Michigan deer opener Sunday
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The Upper Peninsula deer herd remains relatively stable going into Sunday's firearm opener, though numbers are slimmer in areas hit hard by snow last winter, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
"Deep snow and several late-winter snowstorms delayed spring melt and green-up," the DNR said in its annual hunting preview. "These conditions likely affected the deer population, but no major widespread die-offs were reported."
As of Friday, the buck harvest across the U.P. during the 2026 archery hunt to date ranged from 670 in Menominee County to just 17 in Keweenaw County. Firearm season harvests are typically much higher than during archery hunt, which opened Oct. 1.
Locally, the National Weather Service predicts a partly sunny opening day, with a high of 47 degrees and calm winds. Warmer and sunnier days should follow. The predicted highs are 51 on Monday and the mid-50s Tuesday and Wednesday.
There's a chance of rain Thursday, again with a high near 55.
The DNR's online Deer Harvest Report Summary shows more bucks taken during this year's archery season in Dickinson and Iron counties than during the same period a year ago.
As of Friday, the 508 deer taken during the archery hunt in Dickinson County included 349 antlered. That compares with a reported harvest total of 519 during the early archery segment in 2025, when the antlered portion was 300.
The Iron County archery breakdown this year is 265 antlered and 86 antlerless. The 2025 comparative archery totals were 199 antlered and 118 antlerless.
This year's archery buck harvest of 670 as of Friday in Menominee County compares with 676 during the early archery segment in 2025.
Menominee County's archery total of 1,110 this year includes 440 antlerless deer. The comparative total a year ago was 1,095, including 419 antlerless.
During the 2025 season, Menominee County saw 2,231 bucks taken during the firearm hunt, topped only in Michigan by downstate Sanilac County at 2,330. Menominee County's antlerless harvest during the 2025 firearm season was 953.
Dickinson County's harvest total in the 2025 firearm season was 1,062, including 815 antlered. In Iron County it was 1,084, including 750 antlered.
The DNR reminds hunters that a new version of MiHunt, the state's interactive map of lands open to public hunting, is available at Michigan.gov/MiHunt.
"We wanted hunters to build their own adventure rather than be handed a finished one," said Sarah Mayhew, a data specialist for the DNR Wildlife Division. "The map opens with lands open to public hunting and nothing else. Everything beyond that is up to you."
Some layers hunters can switch on include --
-- Species management unit boundaries;
-- Cover type layers showing forest makeup;
-- Land management agencies; and
-- Special hunting areas, including Hunting Access Program properties, Turkey Tracts and Grouse Enhanced Management Sites.
Hunters can also bring their own information to the map. MiHunt now accepts imported spatial data, so a hunter can add a property boundary, a set of waypoints or last season's tracks and view it alongside DNR-provided layers. Imported data is visible only to the person who adds it, Mayhew said.
MiHunt is not a downloadable app. It runs in a web browser on a computer, tablet or phone, with no download or account required.
Jim Anderson can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 85226, or janderson@ironmountaindailynews.com.