Wisconsin hunters described 175,667 deer as “quiet” during the nine-day shotgun season.
That’s down about 8% from 2020 and about 9% below the five-year average, according to data released Tuesday by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
“The general theme of the nine-day deer season was calm,” said Jeffrey Pritzl, a deer program specialist with DNR.
That means both comfortable weather and fewer shots fired, Pritzl said, with the exception of the northern wilderness, where hunters actually killed 9% more deer than they did last year.
Officials said it was too early to estimate what might have contributed to the 13% drop in deer killed or the overall decline in deer in the southern farm area.
“The short answer is we don’t know. If you asked 10 deer hunters … you’d probably get 10 different answers,” Pritzl said. “Here includes human nature and sociology as well as biology.”
But Pritzl noted a growing interest in archery and crossbow hunting may have contributed to the reduced participation in the traditional shotgun season.
“We are seeing a change in hunter effort and harvest propensity from the nine-day gun deer season,” he said. “After all seasons it’s really important to wait and take stock.”
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