Minnesota hunters expected to see more deer, harvest less this year

Hunters in Minnesota are expected to see more deer than last year after the mild winter and early spring, but fewer hunters have antlerless deer tags this fall, the Duluth News Tribune reports. This is because the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is trying to conserve the number of does this year. “We’re going to see more deer and kill less deer,” Mark Johnson, executive director of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association based in Grand Rapids, told the newspaper.

Author:: BMTN Staff
Publish date:: Oct 28, 2012
Updated on: Mar 8, 2018

Hunters in Minnesota are expected to see more deer than last year after the mild winter and early spring, but fewer hunters have antlerless deer tags this fall, the Duluth News Tribune reports. This is because the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is trying to conserve the number of does this year.

“We’re going to see more deer and kill less deer,” Mark Johnson, executive director of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association based in Grand Rapids, told the newspaper. Minnesota's deer season starts Saturday, Nov. 6 and runs through Nov. 18.

Meanwhile, the controversial wolf hunt in Minnesota will also take place during the firearms deer season. The DNR issued 3,600 wolf-hunting permits through a lottery this year, but officials believe hunters and trappers will fall short of the combined quota of 400 wolves. DNR wolf specialist Dan Stark of Grand Rapid told the Star Tribune, "My guess is that about 70 wolves will be taken during deer season."

Roughly 600 wolf licenses weren’t claimed by lottery winners in Minnesota, so they’ll available on a first-come, first-served basis starting Monday.

Last week, the Minnesota Supreme Court rejected an effort by two wildlife groups to block the state’s first wolf hunting season in 40 year.

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The Department of Natural Resources says the decline is a result of a smaller deer population and a windy opening weekend of the firearms season. Minnesota deer hunters harvested 192,300 deer during the 2011 season. That's 15,000 fewer deer than in 2010. The 2012 deer hunting season begins in September.

Wildlife officials say they're reaching their population goals for deer, but the agency plans to revisit those targets as hunters report they're not seeing the number of deer they've seen in the past. The DNR says hunters bagged 192,300 deer last year. That's down from the peak, 290,000, in 2003.

Minnesota's 500,000 deer hunters are expected to see a fair number of deer this season after a mild winter, but the state has issued fewer permits this year in an effort to strengthen herd numbers. The season opens 30 minutes before sunrise on Saturday.