MN deer harvest

Bearcat89 wrote:

The early antlerless seems odd to me. I don’t get the reason.

That specific firearms antlerless hunt is not open statewide. Its only open to certain zones which the DNR deems to have an abundance of deer available. So to me it says that the population perhaps needs to be trimmed a little in those areas.

Make sure you check the regs to see which of the zones are open for it. Also remember that anyone who intends to hunt Thurs-Sun will need additional blaze orange (like if you are a grouse hunter and only usually wear an orange hat or an archery hunter that usually just wears camo).

Reef W wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>grubson wrote:</div>
Ron, it matters because more people means more hunters

But, it doesn’t. Firearm deer licenses peaked in 1992 at 443k and in 2023 there were 315k. Archery has picked up a bit but only added about 20k over that time frame.

Are youth and antler-less tags included in that count? How about archery+crossbow and muzzle loader? Rifle tags may have gone down (I’d bet mostly because of hunters up north in wolf country giving up) but the other seasons have seen increases since 92.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
The early antlerless seems odd to me. I don’t get the reason.

That specific firearms antlerless hunt is not open statewide. Its only open to certain zones which the DNR deems to have an abundance of deer available. So to me it says that the population perhaps needs to be trimmed a little in those areas.

Make sure you check the regs to see which of the zones are open for it. Also remember that anyone who intends to hunt Thurs-Sun will need additional blaze orange (like if you are a grouse hunter and only usually wear an orange hat or an archery hunter that usually just wears camo).

I will be bow hunting in hopes that the sloppy early antlerless guys will push deer to us. We will be in blaze orange. I gave the kid the option to do the youth season and he said he would rather try the bow again. Which is great he made that choice.

Bearcat89 wrote:

I gave the kid the option to do the youth season and he said he would rather try the bow again. Which is great he made that choice.

I agree. Good decision.

Anyone know how many of the youth license and early season license are sold in Minnesota? I looked for both and could not find any #’s. Just curious how many people are doing them.

fishthumper wrote:

Anyone know how many of the youth license and early season license are sold in Minnesota? I looked for both and could not find any #’s. Just curious how many people are doing them.

I couldn’t find anything either. I will guess that the number of people participating in the early doe season is increasing each year they offer it.

I cant remember for sure but the early season I dont think is a special license. They just need a firearms deer license

CaptainMusky wrote:

I cant remember for sure but the early season I dont think is a special license. They just need a firearms deer license

Just your bonus tag. It’s not extra deer going away. Same tags that they already sold or are selling.

Bearcat89 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>CaptainMusky wrote:</div>
I cant remember for sure but the early season I dont think is a special license. They just need a firearms deer license

Just your bonus tag. It’s not extra deer going away. Same tags that they already sold or are selling.

So they / we have no idea how many people are participating in either the youth or early season Hunts?

grubson wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>buckybadger wrote:</div>
I’ll bet that the hundreds of acres of public land here in Wabasha county ~4 miles from our land doesn’t have more than 2 vehicles parked at it on any given morning during the youth gun hunt. It’s not as if there are just lines of angry blaze orange little people scouring the woods and shooting all the deer.

I have friends who tried hunting public down there last year. The gave up after 3 days of having guys set up on top of them and the non stop “squirrel” hunters stomping through the woods all day. I’m sure they’re are lesser known places but overall those big public pieces down there are trampled by hunters from September through December.

I’ll stick to my hypothesis that there won’t be more than 2 vehicles at either of the public land access points nearest my property on any morning this weekend. I have stuff going Friday from sun up to sun down, but I’m going to make it a point to drive in there both Thursday and Saturday now to see.

Participation may be impossible to track on those.

For the early firearms antlerless season, you don’t need any additional license purchase. You simply use your bonus antlerless tag that you could also use during the general season. They could track the harvest during this 4 day hunt based on how many deer are registered, but they can’t track participation.

As for the youth hunt, youth 10-12 need a special youth license (no charge), and 13-17 only need their general firearms license (5 bucks I think?). So there’s no way to track that in full either without a harvest record during the 4 day time frame.

grubson wrote:

Are youth and antler-less tags included in that count? How about archery+crossbow and muzzle loader? Rifle tags may have gone down (I’d bet mostly because of hunters up north in wolf country giving up) but the other seasons have seen increases since 92.

The total license count generally declines until 2008 when new license types were added, and people began buying multiple licenses, and then continues to decline after that again.

fishthumper wrote:

Anyone know how many of the youth license and early season license are sold in Minnesota? I looked for both and could not find any #’s. Just curious how many people are doing them.

Spreadsheet at bottom for everything and youth is in screenshot I attached: https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/licenses/license-sales-data.html

Attachments:

1. 

   deerharvest_2023_pdf.png
   

2. 

   historical_licenses_xlsx.png
   

Nice stats Reef

I couldn’t find any numbers for early antlerless. But I was able to find these numbers for license sold.
Archery – 108,065
Youth – 35,911
Total all gun seasons 445,815

It doesn’t look like the state is separating crossbow from bow license sold. But they do with harvest. In 2022 there were 101,555 archery tags sold. In 2021 there were 104,751 archery tags sold. With the first year of full crossbow inclusion in 2023 there has been 6.41% increase from the 2022 season.

That link that was posted on the first page of the thread appears to be updated almost daily for harvest numbers. It doesn’t differentiate bow/youth gun registrations, but if the youth hunt is some mass harvest event it will show in the overall numbers. I would encourage others to look at their respective areas for a data point before all the deer are harvested/impacted by this upcoming youth hunt.

For me locally, there has been 92 deer harvested so far as of yesterday in our area. Our area is 350 square miles, or 224,000 acres. I’m going to bet that the youth season doesn’t make a discernible difference, but will try to remember to check back on it……….if I’m not caught in the crossfire of thousands of wreckless kids firing carelessly into the woods scaring all the big bucks away and ruining everyone else’s seasons

Link to get the download for license sold.

https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/licenses/license-sales-data.html

buckybadger wrote:

if I’m not caught in the crossfire of thousands of wreckless kids firing carelessly into the woods scaring all the big bucks away and ruining everyone else’s seasons

Put some blaze orange on lol

Bearcat89 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>CaptainMusky wrote:</div>
I cant remember for sure but the early season I dont think is a special license. They just need a firearms deer license

Just your bonus tag. It’s not extra deer going away. Same tags that they already sold or are selling.

Sorry, I was talking about the early youth firearms season.

So they / we have no idea how many people are participating in either the youth or early season Hunts?
[/quote]

Don’t ask me. It isn’t my system, I have no idea. All I can tell you is we put alot of effort in to hunting success and it pays off.

Sorry, I was talking about the early youth firearms season.
[/quote]

Oh yeah that’s just a couple dollar tag. I think the boys last year was 1 dollar.

gimruis wrote:

For the early firearms antlerless season, you don’t need any additional license purchase. You simply use your bonus antlerless tag that you could also use during the general season

You dont have to use your 18 dollar bonus tag. The early doe season tags are 8.50 each after main license purchase.

Oh I didn’t know that. Thanks

fishthumper wrote:

I’m not a big fan of the early seasons. I just don’t see the need for them. To me its just more of the everyone is a winner culture we live in these days. Make it easy as possible for youth to have success and win. I get it that the # of hunters are declining and getting more youth involved is needed. I just feel like doing something to set them up for success is not the answer. To me we are setting them up for failure and loss down the road. When they go from Easy nice hunting conditions with fairly easy success, to them having to hunt the normal season under less ideal condition, is not helping gain more hunters. Just my .02 worth.

My kids have been with in the stand since they were young. We do the youth hunt and regular season. I think it has more to do with how the kids are introduced to hunting that make the difference. If it’s always easy then becomes hard then yes they may want to quit. My kids were taught if you want to hunt you need to help with the whole process including pre season stuff and processing deer if successful. If they complain about having to help I tell them they can hunt somewhere else or not at all. Just how I was raised but I can see your point if all they have to do is pull the trigger.

Stanley wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>fishthumper wrote:</div>
I’m not a big fan of the early seasons. I just don’t see the need for them. To me its just more of the everyone is a winner culture we live in these days. Make it easy as possible for youth to have success and win. I get it that the # of hunters are declining and getting more youth involved is needed. I just feel like doing something to set them up for success is not the answer. To me we are setting them up for failure and loss down the road. When they go from Easy nice hunting conditions with fairly easy success, to them having to hunt the normal season under less ideal condition, is not helping gain more hunters. Just my .02 worth.

My kids have been with in the stand since they were young. We do the youth hunt and regular season. I think it has more to do with how the kids are introduced to hunting that make the difference. If it’s always easy then becomes hard then yes they may want to quit. My kids were taught if you want to hunt you need to help with the whole process including pre season stuff and processing deer if successful. If they complain about having to help I tell them they can hunt somewhere else or not at all. Just how I was raised but I can see your point if all they have to do is pull the trigger.

I’m with you here Stanley.. my kid just got done cutting up his deer from Sunday. He skinned it Sunday. And had been icing it. Now he just got done butchering and I packaged. If he didn’t help he wouldn’t hunt.
Thumper you make it seem like a participation trophy. And in my house that’s not a thing. My kids started hunting young and hunt the regular season as well. Every kill is earned not given. I’d assume most hunters do the same. But I’m sure there’s also alot who just make there kids pull a trigger. But it is what it is.

My stepson has been duck, goose, turkey and deer hunting with me since he was 2 years old and now my daughters do the same. They will absolutely take advantage of every youth season they can. Not a youth season but my 8 year old daughter got her first turkey this spring. With a free youth license.

JEREMY wrote:

My stepson has been duck, goose, turkey and deer hunting with me since he was 2 years old and now my daughters do the same. They will absolutely take advantage of every youth season they can. Not a youth season but my 8 year old daughter got her first turkey this spring. With a free youth license.

Heck yeah, that’s what it’s all about.

2nd that!!!

Youbetcha wrote:

I do think the one thing the kids coming into the sport will have is less pressured public. 5-10 years from now a lot of guys will age out and not many are replacing. I have noticed that a ton with late season. Not many of those folks can handle the below 0 weather. The other thing they will miss is over the counter non resident tags. Those are slowly going away.

The median age of deer hunters in MN and WI is around 60. Things are going to look quite different in 10-15 years when half the people deer hunting now age-out of it.

I spend Most MEA chasing the fall walleye bite and this fall I will b taking my son to LOW on the Ontario side. MEA was always a time to go to our land and spend time fixing our stands and riding 4 wheelers. Now with the early season it limits time we can be in the woods and riding around not wanting to spook deer for the neighboors. We do not partake in this hunt but finds it is nice for us as more mature deer usually show up on our property after this.

My son spends countless hours a year with me chasing turkeys, duck hunting and deer hunting. He is 8 so just getting the taste of chasing a turkey himself. He just loves being out there and loves helps cleaning fish and butchering whatever game we get.