There's no way of knowing yet how many deer are being harvested during this gun-deer hunting season. But there are plenty of hunters out looking for them.
If the number of licenses sold is any indication. This is a good hunt. More than 630-thousand sold as of Friday.. 45 per cent of those during the last week . At one time, Greg Matthews of the DNR says they were selling tags as quickly as 160 a minute on Friday.
Matthews was at one of the check-in stations over the weekend in the southwestern part of the state. Hunters were coming in with deer but mostly bucks. They'd rather see more does.
Unlike most of the state, there is no Earn-a-Buck in the disease eradication zone. But more does need to be killed to make a dent in Chronic Wasting Disease. Matthews says there's a good chance Earn-a-Buck will be back next year.
One good sign for the future of the hunt overall. Ten thousand licenses were sold to people 12 years old. 20 per cent of those tags were sold to girls. A number of tags were sold to people from out-of-state. Fifteen thousand went to hunters from Minnesota. Several hundred were purchased by people in Florida.
The season ends Sunday in most of the state but people tracking deer in the southwest eradication zone have until December 10th.