Gun Deer Hunting Season Sees Large Opening Weekend

Hunters registered nearly 30,000 more deer during the opening weekend of the nine-day gun deer season than last year.

Department of Natural Resources big game ecologist Kevin Wallenfang said around 118,000 deer have been registered from opening weekend, with that number expected to rise as hunters continued to register kills up to a Monday evening deadline.

Wallenfang said a mild winter last year was good for whitetails. Also, he said more northern counties are selling tags for antlerless deer.

“There’s more opportunity out there. The deer numbers are up. We had a great opening weekend weather, so it appears folks stayed in the woods longer,” Wallenfang said.

This is the first year deer hunters must register their deer either by phone or online. Wallenfang said that despite heavy traffic, the system is working well. Law enforcement are investigating three hunting incidents including a fatality in Columbia County.