Wisconsin Reports 8% Decrease in 2021 Firearms Deer Harvest Following 2020 Uptick

Wisconsin’s deer hunting surge only lasted a single season.

In what’s fast becoming a sign of the times, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has the numbers after the conclusion of the state’s nine-day firearms deer season, and it looks like the harvest is down.

The DNR’s report indicates a 7.9 percent dip in harvests of deer statewide during gun season as hunters registered 175,667 deer. This broke down as 84,952 antlered, a 1.3 percent decrease, and 90,715 antlerless, a 13.2 percent decrease.

Harvest numbers saw an uptick from the 2019 season in 2020 when hunters harvested 103,372 antlered and 188,712 antlerless deer. This was possibly due to a surge in interest in hunting because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Unfortunately, that resurgence of interest in hunting was apparently short-lived. Except for the Northern Forest Zone, all of Wisconsin’s deer management zones saw a dip in harvest numbers during the firearms season. The Northern Forest saw 19,602 antlered harvests, a 14.9% increase, and 12,595 antlerless harvests, a 1.7% increase.

The Central and Southern Farmland zones both saw huge decreases in harvests. The Central Zone saw a 14 percent dip in antlerless harvests, and the Southern zone saw a 13.8 percent decrease in antlered, and a 19.5% decrease in antlerless harvests. The trend in harvests follows a 1.5% decline for all deer license sales from 2020. The state has sold 808,224 licenses as of November 28. Of that total, approximately 564,440 were for firearms licenses. Another interesting sign of the times in the DNR’s data indicates that 60% of all licenses were purchased online this year.

In total, Wisconsin’s hunters have registered 270,046 deer so far in 2021. The muzzleloader hunt will be taking place until December 8. Extended antlerless-only hunts and the archery and crossbow season will continue until January 9, so the totals should continue to grow.

The DNR indicated in their press release that the state saw mostly good weather throughout the season, even if the opener was milder than most hunters may have liked. Unfortunately, the numbers seem to indicate a growing trend of hunting losing numbers nationwide. If there is any good news to take from the report, it’s that DNR officials are noting an increased interest in earlier archery and crossbow seasons each year.

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