The Wisconsin deer hunting season opener of 2023 has fewer deer harvested compared to last year’s opener.

Jeff Pritzl, the Deer Program Specialist with the Wisconsin DNR, said there were fewer hunters this year in relation to last year’s numbers.

“There’s about 600,000 deer hunters in Wisconsin and about 550,000 of them, participate in the firearms season,” Pritzl said. “Everyone that buys a license is issued a tag for a buck. That’s good anywhere in the state. Then they can also get additional harvest permits for antler less deer. Those are allotted out by deer management unit, which can vary quite a bit across the state.”

This year with the warm, sunny conditions could have made it more difficult for hunters to track deer according to the Wisconsin DNR.

“Through last year in Wisconsin we had snow on the ground for most of the gun season and that enhanced the harvest somewhat. That just increases availability, visibility and tracking,” Pritzl said. “Without that snow this year, it’s going to be a little bit more challenging.”

After Wisconsin’s deer hunting season opener, more than 92,000 deer were registered throughout the state. However, the number of deer harvested in 2022 surpassed this year’s numbers with more than 103,000 deer registered. According to the Wisconsin DNR this is a 16% decrease from last year and 10% below the 5-year average.

“In northwest Wisconsin, we did have that that extreme snowfall last winter and that did have some impact on the deer population.” Pritzl said.

For more information about the different hunting seasons in Wisconsin you can read more here. Also for other stories about Wisconsin deer hunting you can read more here.