Deer Hunting Providing Less Protein to Wisconsin Families

Numbers from this year's 9-day gun deer season are down.

Preliminary figures show the 2008 gun deer season produced the lowest number of deer killed since at least 2002, when fears of chronic wasting disease kept many deer hunters out of the woods.

The state Department of Natural Resources reported Tuesday that 276,985 deer were killed during the nine-day hunt, which ended Sunday.

About 21% fewer bucks and 18.5% fewer antlerless deer were shot by hunters.

So what’s the deal?

The agency said one reason for the drop this year is that pre-season million to 1.7 million deer statewide were probably not estimates of 1.5 accurate.

Hunters are - anecdotally, at least - dissatisfied about that. But:

Nonetheless, the state's deer population is well above the DNR's goal of 709,000 deer.

Considering how many hunters – anecdotally – had trouble even finding any deer this season, I hope we never reach that particular goal.