The harvest from this year’s nine-day gun deer hunt was down more than 15 percent compared to 2013. The preliminary harvest summary from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources shows hunters registered a total of 191,550 deer, compared to the 2013 total of 226,582.

Kevin Wallenfang, DNR big game ecologist, said the northeast and southern counties saw buck kills that were virtually unchanged compared to 2013. The largest decline in buck harvest was in the far northern counties, where it decreased by 18 percent compared to 2013. The same area saw a 58 percent decrease in antlerless harvest. This was a designed reduction, as part of an effort to increase deer numbers in the Northern Forest Zone.

Overall, statewide antlerless harvest saw a 21 percent decline from 2013. Preliminary nine-day harvest numbers are collected through a call-around survey of over 600 deer registration stations all across Wisconsin and likely will increase when all registration tags are officially counted. During the nine-day hunt, a total of three confirmed shooting related incidents were reported – an all-time low.

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