Jeff Noble / CC
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources released its preliminary figures on the first weekend of Wisconsin’s 2023 Gun Deer Season on Tuesday afternoon. Initial numbers fall short of the 2022 harvest.
In total, hunters registered 92,050 deer statewide during the opening weekend of the 2023 gun deer hunt. That compares to 103,623 registered on the first weekend of the 2022 season. That represents a 16% decrease for last year, and ranks as 10% below Wisconsin’s 5-year average. DNR officials attribute a majority of the decrease to a decline in antlerless deer harvested; however that figure typically rises during the season’s second half. Bucks have so far accounted for 51,870 of the total. That compares to 56,638 last year, a 13% decrease.
Preliminary figures for Sheboygan County indicate a harvest of 504 Antlered Deer and 400 Antlerless, for a total take of 904 deer. The Antlerled Deer take rose 9.6% above the 5-year average, and was 6.1% above last year’s Sheboygan County total for the first weekend. Antlerless Deer showed a 23.2% decline from the 5-year average, and a 26.2% drop from last year. Overall, 2023 has so far fallen 11.1% from last year in Sheboygan County.
Two persons in Wisconsin suffered gunshot accidents during the opening weekend. In the morning hours of November 18th, a 53-year-old man hunting in Argonne Township of Forest County was on private property in a tree stand, adjusting his rifle sling, when he accidentally pulled the trigger. The victim was transported to the hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries to his foot.
On the morning of Sunday the 19th a 62-year-old man hunting on private property in Big Flatts Township of Adams County shot once at a dog which he believed was an antlerless deer. The 47-year-old woman walking that dog sustained a gunshot wound to her abdomen and was flighted via Med Flight for treatment of her injuries.
So far, those two incidents are a significant reduction compared to 2022’s six firearm mishaps reported on Wisconsin’s first weekend of the gun deer season.
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