Deer hunting incidents at an all-time low

With new rule changes this year, deer hunters throughout Wisconsin embraced the excitement of another nine-day gun deer season. A continued commitment to safe hunting led to an all-time low for recorded hunting incidents during the nine-day season.

“Deer hunters throughout the state have been excellent partners in not only learning new rules, but passing on traditions to youth and first-time hunters out there in the woods,” said Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Secretary Cathy Stepp. “As always, we put safety first, and the efforts of hunters to do the same led to a banner year for safe hunting in Wisconsin.”

This year’s preliminary harvest figures indicate a total of 191,550 deer harvested. The overall buck harvest of 90,336 was down roughly eight percent. Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa have seen a similar decline in overall harvest in 2014. A breakdown of harvest by DNR region and county is available in portable document format (pdf) on the DNR website.

During the nine-day hunt, a total of three confirmed shooting related incidents were reported -- this is an all-time low.

The Deer Hunter Wildlife Survey is still active until the end of all deer seasons and wildlife managers are asking hunters to send in a report of what they saw during the just completed nine-day gun hunt and during any hunting trips they make through the end of all deer hunting seasons. This information provides valuable data biologists use to improve population estimates for Wisconsin’s deer herds and other species.

For additional information, search keywords “deer hunter wildlife.”