Hunters killed slightly more deer during Wisconsin’s nine-day gun season this year than in 2017.
The state Department of Natural Resources released preliminary data Tuesday showing hunters killed 211,430 deer this season. That’s up nearly 7 percent from 197,733 deer last year.
The buck kill jumped 5.4 percent, from 99,002 in 2017 to 104,388 this season.
Hunters in the central farmland management zone killed the most deer of any of the state’s four management zones, harvesting 114,288 animals. The central forest zone yielded the fewest deer at 7,037 animals.
“From a safety standpoint, it was the safest season in the state’s history. We only had three non-fatal accidents this year,” Wisconsin DNR Big Game Ecologist Kevin Wallenfang told WTMJ’s Melissa Barclay. “From a harvest perspective, things are up a bit compared to what they’ve been in the past few years.”
Fewer hunters were in the woods. DNR data shows 576,277 hunters purchase some form of gun deer license as of midnight Sunday, the day the nine-day season ended. That’s down from 589,642 licenses last year, a 2.3 percent decrease.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
