(The Center Square) – Wisconsin hunters harvested 0.8% less deer than a year ago with 182,084 deer during the 2025 gun deer season, including 86,068 antlered and 96,016 antlerless deer.
The season ran from Nov. 22 through Sunday and the muzzleloader season runs from now until Dec. 10 with a statewide antlerless hunt coming Dec. 11-14 and an antlerless holiday hunt in select zones from Dec. 24 to Jan. 1.
With the bow and crossbow seasons included, hunters in the state have harvested 1.1% more deer than a year before with 294,757 deer registered.
Overall, Wisconsin hunters have bought 790,044 licenses with 550,611 for gun only.
“We essentially have a pretty stable license purchase and participation rate,” said Department of Natural Resources Deer Specialist Jeff Pritzl.
The busiest area for deer was Marquette County in the Central Farmland Zone, which saw 7.9 deer registered per square mile while Vernon County led the Southern Farmland Zone with 6.5 deer registered per square mile.
There were two gun-related incidents reported during the season, which included the death of a Fond du Lac County hunter after an accidental self-inflicted gunshot to the chest. It was the state’s first gun-hunting fatality since 2022.
