Weather, crop harvests, and water levels are all things that can impact how successful hunters will be during the upcoming 9-day gun deer season.
While the weather is too hard to predict accurately this far out, the other two factors are promising, says DNR Deer Program Specialist Jeff Pritzl.
“Agricultural crop harvest is on or ahead of schedule. That’s a good thing. More corn that’s off the landscape in the farmland usually leads to better hunting activities. Water levels are average to on the drier side. Right now we don’t have high water or flooding issues that would impair access,” said Pritzl.
Pritzl said another good indicator is the archery season that’s happening right now.
Buck harvest is running at or ahead of the five-year average in all four of the deer management zones.
“That trend usually carries through into the gun-deer season. So that’s a good omen as well,” he said.
Hunters registered more than 188,000 white-tailed deer during the 2020 gun-deer season.
That was an increase of 16-percent from the year before.
The gun-deer season runs from November 20th through the 28th.
