DNR reports that hunting success drops Nov. 24, 2009 Gun deer hunters registered a preliminary tally of 100,330 deer over opening weekend of Wisconsin’s nine-day hunt, down 25 percent from 2008.
They killed about 49,500 bucks, down about 3,000, and 50,400 antlerless deer, down 31,000 from last year.
“We want to remind folks that these preliminary numbers come from a staff call-around to deer registrations stations Monday morning,” Tom Hauge, the DNR’s wildlife management director, said. “The final opening weekend tally will likely be somewhat larger, when all the registration stubs are entered into the data base over the next couple of months.”
Locally, Eric Borchert, DNR wildlife technician, reported a 11 percent decline in the total number of bucks harvested, with 588 animals registered at the region’s nine stations.
With most of the northwood’s designated as “bucks only,” the antlerless tally fell 87 percent, to 95 deer. Does may only be taken in a few units, mainly south and east of Antigo.
Wildlife staff throughout the state stressed throughout the fall that they expected lower total harvest numbers—especially antlerless deer harvest numbers—due to several factors including lower deer numbers in many areas of the state, fewer herd control units and no earn-a-buck units outside of the chronic wasting disease management zone.
The department’s license sales office reported 626,404 hunters hit the woods with a license to participate in the 2009 nine-day gun deer season. The number of gun hunting licenses included a new category this year, 9,592 10- and 11-year-old hunters who for the first time were able to participate as mentored hunters under Wisconsin’s new Mentored Hunting Law.
Deer license and tag sales will continue through the hunting seasons.
Over 43 percent—nearly half—of all deer hunters purchased a license in the eight days preceding the gun deer opener; 82,463 licenses were sold on Friday. Nearly 270,000 licenses were issued in the eight days preceding the season opener.
There were no confirmed fatal shooting incidents recorded during the first two days of the hunt but there were five non-fatal firearms-related incidents, DNR Hunter Education Administrator Tim Lawhern said.
Three woundings occurred on Saturday. In Grant County a hunters was struck in the back of the leg by shrapnel when a hunting companion’s gun discharged into the door of a vehicle as he attempted to unload the gun.
In Price County, a hunter suffered a self-inflicted wound in the left hand from a handgun, and in Green County a hunter sustained a gunshot wound to his leg when he slipped crossing a stream on a log and his shotgun discharged.
On Sunday a Barron County hunter was wounded in the thigh by a bullet, and in St Croix County a hunter sustained a self-inflicted gunshot would to the right hand from a .30-30 caliber rifle.
Hunter Safety Administrator Tim Lawhern noted that historically about half of Wisconsin’s shooting incidents happen during deer drives, usually because someone wasn’t where they were supposed to be or someone shot at a deer when they did not have a safe backstop or in a direction they should not have been shooting.
Statistically, about half the hunting incidents happen during opening weekend.
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