GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Hunters had more luck during the opening weekend of the gun deer season this year than they did in 2021.
Numbers released Tuesday show a 15% increase in deer registration over last year.
“This isn’t so much a big jump from last year as much as it is a return to normal, from what we’ve seen in the five year average,” said Wisconsin DNR’s Jeff Pritzl.
Hunters across the state took 103,623 deer over the weekend compared to 90,023 in 2021. The five-year average is 102,347.
The successful harvest is in spite of windy, and frigid weather throughout the weekend.
“Every year there are a half dozen variables working either for the hunt or against the hunt,” Pritzl said.
The snow cover did work in favor of hunters, who were better able to follow deer tracks in the snow.
Five people were hurt and one was killed in six separate hunting incidents over the opening weekend.
Three of the victims were shot by members of their own hunting party, and three suffered self inflicted wounds. The worst was the death of an 11 year old boy in Green Lake County, shot when a 41-year-old man was unloading a gun in the back seat of a vehicle.
Wisconsin DNR Recreational Safety Section Chief April Dombrowski says most accidents can be avoided by following basic gun safety rules, and maintains that hunting is a safe activity in Wisconsin that has only gotten safer with mandatory hunters safety courses and the blaze-orange hunting gear requirement.
In 2021, 12 total hunting incidents were reported in the state. In 1966, there were 264 incidents. The very next year, in 1967, hunters safety courses began in the state.
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