Deer seasons are always challenging to predict. This year I expected a significant decrease in harvest because we had a drawing for antlerless permits.
The antlerless harvest decreased more than I expected, considering that we had almost 4,000 antlerless or youth permits available. The registered harvest in the area from the Ash River Trail to Northome was 1,964, which is a decrease of 35 percent from last year’s harvest of 3,033. The buck harvest was 75 percent of the total and decreased 11 percent from last year.
The higher buck percentage is no surprise since we had a limited number of antlerless permits. This is the lowest total harvest we have had in this area since 1999. I have provided a comparison from different parts of the area for the last six years.
The weather was much warmer than average for the season, and was one of our warmest deer seasons in recent history. The highest temperature was 59 degrees and the lowest was 17, with all 16 days being above average for temperature. There was a little rain on a couple of days and snow one day. The snow did not stay in most places. There were some windy days, but not many. It was generally a very pleasant season with lots of sunny, warm days for hunters to enjoy being out.
We can measure the number of hunters by using the electronic licenses sales, and looking at which permit area hunters say they hunt in. There were a few less hunters that purchased licenses for this area, but the hunter numbers were basically similar to last year.
On the other hand, hunting effort is much more difficult to measure than hunter numbers.
The excellent hunting weather seemed to keep people hunting throughout the season. I would say hunting effort was very good.
In general, the season was not what we have been used to for a number of years. Not having the bonus or antlerless permit available forced hunters to be more careful in their shot selection. For several years now, hunters have been able to take a shot at a deer that they were not sure was a buck or doe, if they could clearly see a vital area.
If the deer had been acting like a buck on the move, the shot could be taken, because the permit was there to cover it. This year, antlers had to be clearly seen, and sometimes that means the opportunity to make a good shot is gone. Over the years, many unknown deer have turned out to be bucks. I have always called them “doe permit bucks” at our shack.
This is what I said in last year’s article to the paper: “As always, we will watch the winter weather, take a close look at the harvest numbers, and will have to make a decision next May on what type of season we can have for next fall. “
Well, we did have a very bad winter and reacted to it. We looked at the fact that we have had a general trend down in total harvest for a few years, combined with the bad winter and decided to be pretty aggressive in protecting the doe population. The does are what we need to make the herd recover. We were successful in reducing our antlerless harvest by 68 percent. Some of those are buck fawns, but it is a small percentage.
Hopefully we can get the population recovered to the point where we can increase opportunity for all hunters again soon. With good winter weather this can happen pretty quickly. Bad winters will obviously slow down the recovery.
Good luck to those who are hunting in the muzzleloader season and the remaining part of the archery season. For those who are done, I hope you had a good time hunting.
Call or write with questions: 286-5434; frank.swendsen@state.mn.us
