DNR might extend deer hunt a week next year

By BILL NOVAK | Lee Newspapers

The gun deer hunting season could be 16 days long instead of 9 days if a proposal is approved by the sport’s governing body next month.

The Natural Resources Board will consider the longer hunt at its meeting on Dec. 8 in Madison.

The board established a special committee to look at alternatives to the existing earn-a-buck system (taking an antlerless deer before a buck), and came up with the longer season, starting either on the traditional Saturday before Thanksgiving or earlier.

Overwhelming public support was for keeping the traditional start.

The recommendation, according to the weekly news report from the Department of Natural Resources, is to start the hunt on the traditional day and have it run for 16 days, ending on the second Sunday after Thanksgiving.

"At public hearings we heard sentiment overwhelmingly against an early start date, so we are recommending a traditional opening date to the board at this time," said DNR Secretary Matt Frank.

The gun deer season is currently in its fifth day, with a scheduled end on Nov. 29.

The new deer hunting proposal also includes:

  • Extending the archery deer season through all gun seasons and extending the archery season until the end of January in herd control units.

  • An additional four-day October anterless-only statewide muzzleloader hunt.

  • A four-day youth hunt coinciding with an October antlerless-only gun hunt in herd control units.

  • A seven-day statewide December muzzleloader hunt.

  • A four-day December antlerless-only gun hunt.

  • A 10-day buck plus quota holiday hunt in farmland and central forest management units.

    The proposal is available here.

    Deer herds are not expected to be over-harvested with the additional hunting seasons, said DNR big game ecologist Keith Warnke.

    "The safeguard against this (over-harvesting) is the existing quota system," Warnke said. "Under this system, the harvest of female deer is limited by permit, to maintain populations at healthy, sustainable levels."

    Legislative review of any action by the Natural Resources Board is expected to be completed by March.

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