With the nine-day deer hunting season only two weeks away, local DNR officials are asking hunters to use common sense and check over their stands before climbing up to hunt. Door County Warden Chris Kratcha says besides gun safety, hunters need to make sure their tree stand is safe to climb before the season begins.
According to a 2013 hunter survey done in Wisconsin, 84 percent of hunters used tree stands, 62 percent owned a safety restraint, but only 31 percent always used them. Over 600,000 hunters are expected to participate in the nine-day firearms hunt this year. Hunters registered 160,569 deer last year which was down nearly 25 percent from 2018.