WISCONSIN — The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources announced the preliminary 2022 gun deer hunt harvest totals, which shows hunters were more successful this year compared to last year.
Preliminary figures show hunters registered 203,295 deer during this year's gun deer season. That includes 98,397 antlered and 104,898 antlerless deer.
The total firearm deer harvest so far is up 14.4% statewide compared to 2021. The antlered harvest is up 14.7% and the antlerless harvest is up 14.1%.
Across the state, all four deer management zones showed harvest increases:
- Central Forest Zone: +30.6%
- Northern Forest Zone: +19.3%
- Central Farmland Zone: +13.5%
- Southern Farmland Zone: +10.2%
According to the Wisconsin DNR, Adams County in the Central Farmland Zone led the state with more than 12 deer registered per square mile, Vernon County led the Southern Farmland Zone with almost seven deer registered per square mile, the Central Forest Zone in Eau Claire County registered 4.8 deer per square mile and Taylor County registered the most per square mile in the Northern Forest Zone at four.
The 2022 regional harvest breakdown by deer management zone is available online.
As for license sales, those have gone down since last year. Wisconsin DNR said all deer licenses are down 1.6% from the same time last year.
As of 11:59 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 27, there were 795,072 license sales for gun, bow, crossbow, sports and patron. Of that, 436,423 were for gun privileges only and 554,898 were for all gun privileges, including gun, sports and patron licenses, according to the Wisconsin DNR.
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