DNR reports larger harvest for nine-day gun deer hunt

Big bounce in overall numbers for the just-completed nine day gun deer hunt in Wisconsin.

The DNR says hunters registered roughly 211,430 deer during the hunt, a 6.9% increase over last year.

Some counties in the state reported much bigger percentage jumps, including La Crosse county, where hunters bagged just shy of 2,481 deer, a more than 20% increase over last year’s nine day gun deer hunt numbers.

In Vernon county, there were 16% more deer taken this season than for the hunt last year. Hunters registered 5,612 deer. That’s about one animal every 2.3 minutes of those nine days.

Monroe county (5,539), Trempealeau county (4,208), and Jackson county (3,487) all showed increases over last year’s hunt totals.

Deer hunting isn’t over in the state by a long stretch. Hunters still can take advantage of ongoing archery and crossbow hunts as well as a muzzleloader hunt that started this week and a couple of antlerless only hunts coming up next month. You can check remaining hunting seasons here.

The DNR is calling the nine-day gun deer hunt the safest on record in the state, with three non-fatal shooting accidents reported. The previous low was four non-fatal shooting accidents in 2014. Last year there were six such shootings.