Success lagged for many during opening weekend of deer firearms season

Minnesota deer hunters harvested far fewer deer than average on the biggest two days of the season, taking 23% fewer whitetails than during last year's opening weekend and nearly a third less than the five-year mean.

DNR Big Game Program Supervisor Barbara Keller said a depleted deer population in north-central and northeastern Minnesota was a factor in the decline, but success lagged everywhere. She said high winds on Sunday contributed to the decline, as did cold rain on Saturday in the southeastern region. Overall, she described opening weekend weather as a variable problem for hunters.

Keller reported the opening weekend harvest as 49,274 deer, but noted it would "creep up'' when registrations are finalized. Coupled with more than 20,600 whitetails harvested during the archery season and other early seasons this fall, hunters will need to take roughly 116,000 more deer this year to match last year's total harvest of 184,698 whitetails. DNR's prediction coming into the season was for parity with last year.

"Whether we can make it up or not remains to be seen,'' Keller said.

She recalled that in 2020, Minnesota deer hunters also fell well short of harvest expectations on opening weekend. The weather then was warm and windy. But in 2020, hunters overcame the slow start over the next seven days. The big difference this year, Keller said, is that people don't have as much free time on their hands as they did during that first year of COVID-19.

Based on license sales, participation during the first two days of the state's traditional nine-day firearms season was nearly on par with last year, Keller said. Through Sunday, DNR sold 392,271 deer licenses of all kinds, down 2% from the same period last year. It's notable, however, that license sales are now at their lowest point in the 2000s, dipping below 400,000 on opening weekend for the second consecutive year.

By year's end in 2021, DNR sold 467,413 deer licenses of all kinds, down 2% from 2020 and 10% below the 10-year high of 521,991 licenses sold in 2012.

This year by region, hunters in the northwest fared the worst in year-over-year harvest comparisons for opening weekend. Hunters in the northwest took 14,076 deer, 32% fewer than in 2021 and 39% below the five-year mean.

In the northeast region, DNR made fewer lottery tags available this year because deer populations were depressed even before the harsh winter of 2021-22. Opening-weekend harvest in the northeast of 10,590 deer was 24% below last year and 41% below the five-year mean.

"We do need a mild winter up there to help the deer population, for sure,'' Keller said.

Even in the central region, where deer harvest is the greatest, opening weekend results were 18% below last year and 18% below the five-year mean, Keller said.

The best showing on opening weekend was in the southwest, a region that produces the fewest deer but has been enjoying a growing abundance of whitetails. Keller said the 8,456 deer taken in the southwest on opening weekend was 15% less than last year and 12% below the five-year mean.

In eight designated disease management zones across the state, DNR mandated testing of all deer taken Saturday and Sunday. DNR Wildlife Health Program Supervisor Michelle Carstensen said the program to monitor chronic wasting disease (CWD) collected 7,000 tissue samples over the weekend. Those lymph nodes were shipped Tuesday to laboratories in Colorado and Wisconsin for testing. Results are expected next week.

Since 2010, 168 wild deer in Minnesota have tested positive for CWD. Most cases have been in the southeastern region of the state, but even in the southeast, the prevalence of the disease has remained low.