During Wisconsin’s the nine-day gun deer season Nov. 17-25 preliminary numbers show 211,430 deer were registered, an increase over the 197,733 deer taken during the 2017 season.
This year’s total included 104,388 antlered deer. Gun deer license sales had reached 576,277 by season's end, a 2 percent drop from last year’s totals.
Besides the increase in the number of deer harvested, it was also a banner year for hunting safety. The 2018 year's hunt was one of the safest on record, with the DNR Bureau of Law Enforcement reporting only three relatively minor firearm-related incidents in Columbia, Dunn, and Sauk counties, and no fatalities.
License sales continue through December as more hunting opportunities include a statewide four-day anterless-only hunt, Dec. 6-9, and an anterless-only hunt in select Farmland Zone counties, Dec. 2 to Jan.1
More information on the 2018 hunt, including county-by-county harvest totals, is available here.