With more deer in the woods for this year’s firearms deer hunting season, the statewide deer harvest was expected to see a corresponding increase.
That did not happen, however, over the first two days of the 2018 season.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources reports that hunters registered 70,724 deer over the opening weekend Nov. 4-5. No figures beyond that were available when the Advocate went to press Nov. 13.
The opening-weekend deer kill represented a rise of less than 1 percent from the first two days of the 2016 gun-deer season.
Of the 70,724 deer killed, 57 percent were bucks, compared to 67 percent of the first weekend harvest of 2016.
"We expected to see an increased harvest this year, and that appears to be so in Zone 1. In the other zones where the first weekend harvest is off, it could be that the amount of standing corn negatively affected deer harvest," Steve Merchant, DNR wildlife populations and regulations manager, said. "If that is the case, we should see improved deer harvest as more corn is harvested."
Total harvest rose 16 percent in Zone 1, which represents northeastern Minnesota. In Zone 2, which covers the majority of the state from Canada to Iowa, the deer kill dropped by 5 percent, and in Zone 3, which covers southeastern Minnesota, the deer kill fell 20 percent.
The DNR had forecast the total harvest this season to be in the neighborhood of 200,000. In 2016, 173,213 deer were killed.
The anticipated increase was based upon the number of antlerless permits available and the number of permit areas that allowed multiple deer to be taken this year.
The 2017 gun-deer season lasted nine days and ended Sunday, Nov. 12 for much of Minnesota.
The deer harvest will benefit from the northern rifle zone season, which runs through Sunday, Nov. 19; the late southeast season, which begins Saturday, Nov. 18 and extends through Sunday, Nov. 26; and the muzzleloader season, which begins Saturday, Nov. 25 and continues through Sunday, Dec. 10.
2018 Governor’s opener in Hinckley
The Hinkley area will be the site of the 2018 Minnesota Governor’s Deer Hunting Opener, from Nov. 1-4.
The event, which began in 2003, is coordinated by the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association in cooperation with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and Explore Minnesota.
This is the first time in the 16 years of the event that it has come to Hinckley, which is roughly one hour north of the Twin Cities metropolitan area.